COLIN HEALY very nearly missed last night's match at Coventry City with a minor toe problem, but now he is facing the prospect of a much lengthier spell on the sidelines.

He was taken to hospital after suffering what looked a horrific leg injury following a challenge by Youssef Safri.

With just eight minutes to play at Highfield Road, Safri's lunge seemed to snap the Sunderland midfielder's shin bone.

Referee Michael Jones incredibly waved play on but the game soon stopped and Healy was stretchered off. The Irishman's absence will be a massive blow to Sunderland's bid for promotion.

The Black Cats were fortunate to return to the North-East with a point as draw specialists Coventry ran the show for most of the first half.

A cool penalty by 37-year-old player-boss Gary McAllister on 22 minutes secured the Sky Blues' seventh draw in eight matches.

The penalty cancelled out Stewart Downing's superb early strike for his second goal in consecutive games.

The point claimed by Mick McCarhy's men has pushed Sunderland back into a play-off place on a night which will be remembered mainly for Healy's dreadful injury.

Coventry offer the perfect illustration of how difficult life can be in the Nationwide League.

Since dropping out of the top-flight they have never looked like making a return to the glamorous surroundings of the Premiership.

They are now in their third season in Division One and are way off the promotion pace again.

Yet last night Sunderland struggled to contain their hosts for most of the match and were fortunate to escape with anything, even though substitute Marcus Stewart went close to snatching all three points late on when he fired over the bar from 20 yards.

Despite suggesting Stewart was set for a recall, McCarthy left the former Ipswich Town striker on the bench and instead opted for Tommy Smith alongside Kevin Kyle in attack.

But the biggest surprise was the omission of winger John Oster, who was ruled out with a hamstring injury.

After the weekend's results, Sunderland slipped to ninth in the table and were looking for three points against a side suffering similar problems in form.

The Sky Blues had not won in seven matches and player-boss McAllister included himself in the starting XI in a bid to boost his players' morale.

Before Downing gave Sunderland the perfect start, the visitors were indebted to Mart Poom for denying Coventry the lead.

Patrick Suffo's bursting run into the box was halted by the challenge of Joachim Bjorklund. The ball fell kindly to the unmarked Michael Doyle at the back post but his volley was expertly turned away by Poom.

Even the Estonian would have struggled to stop Sunderland's opening goal on eight minutes.

Downing received the ball on the left wing from Julio Arca before cutting inside Craig Pead and firing a low left-foot shot into Gavin Ward's far bottom corner.

The strike further highlighted the class of the youngster, who has now struck three goals since arriving on loan from Middlesbrough.

And where McCarthy has been restricted in his bid to draft new players in, the temporary capture of the teenager has proved a great piece of business. What they will do when his loan expires on December 29 the Sunderland boss will not even know.

From one of Downing's pin-point crosses Kyle should have done better with a downward header which was easily dealt with by Ward.

But Coventry were attacking far too frequently for Sunderland's liking and from the resulting break they claimed the penalty which pulled the scores level.

McAllister's incisive through ball set Julian Joachim free inside the penalty area.

Poom raced out and caught the former Aston Villa forward's legs and a spot-kick was given with the goalkeeper receiving the yellow card.

The Coventry manager stepped up and coolly slotted into Poom's bottom left-hand corner.

In a very similar surge by the hosts 16 minutes later, Poom did superbly to claim the ball when faced with the pace of Joachim for a second time after another clever slide pass from McAllister.

There was genuine hope on Wearside, after last week's rallying ten-man display brought them a point against Wigan, that the result would herald a resurgence in their faltering form.

But Coventry, sitting well adrift of the automatic promotion places, caused Sunderland a great deal of trouble and there was a need for some stern words from McCarthy in the dressing room at half-time.

Bjorklund and George McCartney were doing their best at the heart of the defence to keep their side in the clash, but there was no real outlet of escape for them. Every time the ball was cleared it failed to stick to either Kyle or his new strike partner Smith.

Whatever McCarthy did say seemed to have little impact.

Coventry, who recorded 13 shots in the first half in stark contrast to Sunderland's two, earned a free-kick on the edge of the area when Darren Williams fouled Stephen Warnock.

But Steve Staunton's curling kick was blocked by the wall as it looked destined for the bottom corner.

McCarthy's men did not look like scoring, but they very nearly did with a little help from Ward in the Coventry goal.

Smith's cross was heading for a goal-kick when Kyle's outstretched boot somehow kept the ball in play and Ward's way of dealing with it was to punch it just over his own crossbar.

Result: Coventry City 1 Sunderland 1.

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