MIKE Dodds believes the summer transfer priority for Sunderland must be adding depth to the squad - as well as some Championship know-how.

Sunderland's interim head coach doesn't believe the current Black Cats squad is too far short of being able to compete at the top end of the Championship, but says a lack of numbers has been costly this season when injuries have piled up.

The lack of experience in the squad has also been a matter of discussion throughout a disappointing campaign and Dodds admits that might need addressing - but not necessarily with players who are approaching the final years of their career.

"I wouldn't say it's necessarily just experience, I know that's a big talking point," he said.

"There may be a need for one or two players with experience and when I say that I don't necessarily mean 30 plus players, I mean players with 200, 300 plus appearances in the Championship. That is probably something they could look at.

"For me, and I've said this word a few times, it's about depth. We're one of, if not the youngest team in the Championship and we're all on board with that and we're all clear on why that is.

"But then on top of that, if you lose three or four players to injury or suspension, you're relying on Under-18s or Under-21s on the bench and you're getting even younger.

"So for me it's about more depth, but the flip side of that is if the new head coach doesn't have the same level of injuries, people won't be talking about.

"If you look at the injury room we've had at times, there's a good team in there. So my overriding thought would be more depth in a number of positions."

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On the subject of injuries, Dodds confirmed both Dennis Cirkin and Nazariy Rusyn will miss Saturday's game against Sheffield Wednesday.

The pair are back in training but won't be risked on the final weekend of the season.

Dodds said: "Dennis won't be involved - he's trained with the group and as I said a couple of weeks ago, it's that risk/reward in terms of do we look to involve him and speed the process up a little bit to try and get him on the pitch, or do we accept the fact that it's a couple of weeks too early.

"Dennis won't be involved but he seems to be going in the right direction and fingers crossed everything looks set for him to have a really strong pre-season and then go on to show everyone what a wonderful footballer he is.

"Nazariy has started training this week but he won't be involved. He's fine, he's had this issue with his calf and if we had one more game, I think he would have featured in that. But it's just one week too early, I think."