Sunderland defender Bailey Wright is set to miss Saturday's Bristol Rovers game with an ankle injury.
Wright, on a season-long loan from Bristol City, joined the Black Cats in January and has played five times for Phil Parkinson's side since the move.
And he has helped tighten up the Sunderland defence, keeping four clean sheets and endearing himself to fans in the meantime. But Parkinson will be without his new man come Saturday.
He is expected to have an extended spell on the sidelines after being substituted with an ankle injury in the 1-0 win over Oxford on the weekend, and the boss admitted that it isn't good news.
Speaking after the game, Parkinson told the Chronicle: “It doesn’t look good, that’s all I can say.
“Obviously it’s a bit early [to make an assessment] but it looks like quite a bad injury which is a blow, but Alim [Ozturk] has come on and done well.”
With Wright out, Sunderland will have to turn to Dutch defender Ozturk to come into the side. Ozturk has kept four clean sheets in his last four games for the Black Cats and Parkinson is confident that he can step into Wright's shoes.
He said: “Alim is unlucky to have been out of the team.
“We made the change at Tranmere but it was a tough call.
“Bailey has been excellent for us but if he is out for a period, Alim comes in and there’s no problem with that at all.
“Alim has a great personality, he is a great lad and while he has been out of the team he has trained well and that’s really important.
“We have gone with the same team for quite a period of time now and sometimes it can be difficult to keep those other lads going but, as I keep saying, they have been outstanding and they have driven the other lads on.”
Bristol Rovers go into the game off the back of their first win under Ben Garner, a 2-1 comeback over Blackpool. However, Rovers will be missing men of their own.
Defender Tom Davies is expected to out until the end of the season with a knee injury and Liam Sercombe is likely to miss out with a shoulder problem.
However they could welcome James Daly and Gavin Reilly into the fold come the weekend as they look to build on that win on Saturday.
