Luke O’Nien picks up suspension in Sunderland’s defeat to Leicester

After receiving his tenth card of the season during Sunderland’s home loss to Leicester City yesterday night, Mike Dodds feels that LUKE O’NIEN’s absence from the team’s next two games is an appropriate representation of his current luck.

Following several weeks of balancing discipline, O’Nien finally lost it when he was booked for a foul on Yunus Akgun close to the center circle early in the second half.

The encounter against Southampton on Saturday and the home game against QPR the following weekend will now be missed by the defender. At center-half, Jenson Seelt and Dan Ballard are still interchangeable, but Dodds feels that O’Nien’s suspension is a prime illustration of how things have been going lately.

The interim head coach of Sunderland admitted, “I feel like I can’t catch a break at the moment. With coming in and not having Ballard, who I thought grew into the game against Leicester and was outstanding, and with injuries to some other key players.”

“Now that Luke won’t be with us, I feel like I never have a break. However, these things are sent to test us, and I find this to be a positive challenge. I have to figure out how to make these setbacks become victories. To achieve that, we’re going to put in a lot of effort.

Had Sunny Singh Gill, the match official, given Sunderland a penalty after Dan Ballard was taken down in stoppage time by a challenge from Hamza Choudhury, the outcome of last night’s match might have been slightly different.

Dodds was not going to start scolding the referee for his call, even though he could not see why Ballard would have fallen in the box without being fouled.

“I’m one of those guys where it’s gone now though. People are going to be frustrated by it, and the lads are frustrated by it, but I can’t affect it now. “Dan is adamant that it was a penalty, and my first instinct is, ‘Why would he go down?'” he said. “Unfortunately, I can’t control it right now. The way my mind works is that I have to focus on the next game. If it was a penalty, we’re going to be frustrated, but the truth is there’s nothing we can do about it.”

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