DAN NEIL has suffered an ankle injury that will keep him out of the remaining two games of Sunderland’s season.

Neil was absent from the squad for today’s 1-0 home defeat to Millwall, having injured his ankle in training earlier this week.

The problem means he will not be involved in either of the remaining matches against Watford and Sheffield Wednesday, but he should have recovered in time for the start of pre-season training later this summer.

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“Dan rolled his ankle,” confirmed Sunderland’s interim head coach, Mike Dodds. “We were waiting for a scan (on Friday), and obviously the feedback wasn't positive - we think he'll be out for some time. However, we do think he'll be back in time to start pre season.”

Trai Hume was omitted from today’s starting line-up because of an illness issue that limited his training last week, while Patrick Roberts was absent because his partner gave birth to a son earlier today.

“With Trai, he was ill yesterday (and then improved), so we decided we didn't want to change the preparation and drop him in on the day of the game. Patrick Roberts had the birth of his son this morning, so he is down in London.”

Bradley Dack stepped up to the starting line-up in the absence of both Neil and Roberts, but failed to threaten the Millwall goal before he was withdrawn at the interval.

Dack, whose one-year deal will expire in the summer, has failed to make much of an impact since moving to Wearside from Blackburn Rovers ahead of the start of the season, with his half-time exit this afternoon a tactical decision rather than the result of an injury recurrence.

“Bradley wasn't injured,” explained Dodds. “It was more that we wanted to get more runners in behind their backline. Our thinking (in starting Dack) was to try and dominate the ball and their two central defenders are players who want to play up against people.

“We felt having someone who didn't play up against them would allow us to have more control of the game and target the wide areas. Obviously, that didn't happen, so we made one or two changes to try and get more threat in behind the backline. We didn't trouble their backline enough all game, really. It's just about us trying to find solutions in the top end of the pitch.”