Sunderland start their pre-season with a clash against Darlington 1883 on Friday night but manager Dick Advocaat has a host of injury problems to contend with ahead of the game.

No less than six players are out of the clash due to fitness related problems.

Jordi Gomez and Costel Pantilimon are the high profile stars who will be missing due to the respective knee injuries the duo sustained at the end of last season.

Dick Advocaat has stated that he is not looking to rush the two players back into action too soon.

The Dutchman said: "Gomez is going the right way, but he's not working with us. He's still working separately with the physio.
"Pantilimon is doing that too, but he's going the right way. He can't play games at the moment, but he's training separately with the goalkeeping coach."