Chris Maguire will miss Sunderland’s League Cup trip to his former club Oxford United after a change to this season’s disciplinary rules.
After much controversy in last season’s Football League Trophy, which the Black Cats were caught up in, suspensions have been changed to cover the competitions the offences were committed in, and Maguire has fallen foul of that.
Bookings at Accrington Stanley and Sheffield United will therefore keep Maguire out of next month’s last 16 tie.
On the positive side, it means he is three, not one, caution away from a League One suspension.
Max Power and Bryan Oviedo both had suspensions extended over an extra game because they took part in the Football League Trophy – and for those purposes the competition was not treated as a first-team one, even though the League One Black Cats would have been penalised had they not fielded their senior side.
However, the authorities then bent the rules in Sunderland’s favour, allowing George Honeyman to play in the final when he ought to have been suspended for a red card at Wycombe Wanderers . The captain instead completed his suspension in the subsequent league game, at Accrington Stanley .
The same ruling means Newcastle United’s Dwight Gayle is not suspended this season despite ending the last campaign with a red card playing on loan for West Browmich Albion in the Championship play-offs.
