Sunderland boss Steve Bruce laments Kieran Richardson's hamstring injury suffered in their Carling Cup defeat to Aston Villa.

The former Manchester United man limped through the remainder of the game to avoid Sunderland going down to 10 men as they chased the game.

Richardson did well to finish the contest but is now considered a doubt for the upcoming game against Liverpool at Anfield.

"It summed our night up," Bruce told safc.com.

"I'd made my third substitution 30 seconds before Kieran got injured.

"It's always a gamble to use all three subs but I felt I had to throw an attacking player on with us losing 2-1.

"That's the disappointing thing. I hope he's not done anything major but we will have to wait and see how bad it is."