Joel Lynch had regained consciousness before he was taken to hospital after suffering a ‘very bad’ head injury at Portsmouth, Phil Parkinson has confirmed.
The Sunderland centre-back was nudged by Pompey striker Ellis Harrison into oncoming goalkeeper Jon McLaughlin, and Lynch was knocked out in the resulting collision inside the penalty area inside the final ten minutes of the 2-0 defeat at Fratton Park.
There was a six-minute delay while Lynch received treatment on the pitch before he was stretchered off to a waiting ambulance and taken to hospital.
And Parkinson says Sunderland are now waiting for an update on his condition.
“Joel was knocked unconscious and has gone to hospital,” said Parkinson.
"He had come round and he was conscious before he was stretchered off.
“But we don’t really know the extent of his injury yet and we just hope he’s alright.
“The centre-forward has just pushed him [into the goalkeeper], there’s no need for him to do that.
“It looks like he has suffered a very bad injury and it is a worry when someone is knocked clean out.
“The medical team were on there very quickly, we can only tell you more when we get him ourselves from hospital.”
Lynch’s injury meant Sunderland ended the game with ten men having already made all three substitutions.
And one of those changes had been forced upon them, with striker Charlie Wyke going off at half-time after suffering a shoulder injury after colliding with Pompey keeper Alex Bass.
Parkinson said: “If you look at the incident, he’s running through, and the defender has just ran across him and clipped him, and made him collide with the goalkeeper.
“I don’t think it was a serious shoulder injury but it was certainly serious enough for him to come off at half-time and we’ll have to assess that tomorrow morning.”
