ELLIS SIMMS is set to return to training on the grass pitches at Sunderland’s Academy of Light today – but the striker remains unavailable for Saturday’s home game with Wigan Athletic.

Simms suffered a toe injury during last month’s 3-0 win at Reading, and has been forced to sit out the Black Cats’ last four matches, none of which have resulted in a victory.

The Everton loanee’s absence has been extremely keenly felt, with leading scorer Ross Stewart also unavailable as he continues to recover from a thigh issue, and his gradual return to training will be a major boost.

However, Simms will not feature at the weekend, and is unlikely to return to first-team action for another couple of weeks, meaning Sunderland boss Tony Mowbray will once again have to come up with a plan to address his side’s lack of a natural centre-forward.

Mowbray said: “Things have changed a bit because Ellis is getting his boots on and getting back out on the grass today. It’s his first day back on the grass.

“He’s been on the treadmills which take your body weight out of it and get your running action going, and he felt fine, so he’s getting his boots on and coming outside today, which is obviously a positive sign.

“If he comes through the next few days, you never know, hopefully he won’t be that far away.”

Corry Evans is also unavailable for Saturday’s game after picking up his fifth booking of the season in last weekend’s 2-1 defeat at Swansea City.

The midfielder will serve a one-match suspension at the weekend, which gives Mowbray another selection issue to assess as he ponders the make-up of his starting side to face Wigan.

The Black Cats boss said: “My dilemmas are around, ‘What are we going to do with that? How are we going to replace Corry?’

“If you saw the Under-21s game against Leeds, you’ll have seen how good (Edouard) Michut was in that game. He’s a lovely technical player passing the ball through the lines, but he’s also competitive, he did 13kms in that game, which is a huge figure. He’s showing me he’s not far away from being a first-team footballer.

“Do we bring (Dennis) Cirkin back in and try to rearrange the midfield? Have we got another player who can do what Corry does? How many defensive-minded midfield players do you need in a team?

“Or, because it’s Wigan and their main strength is getting it wide and getting it in your box, the best way to stop the flow of that is to keep the ball off them, so should we pick players who try to keep the ball rather than turn it over all the time? We’ll make that call.”