Sunderland's German winger Leon Dajaku was ruled out for last night's Carabao Cup defeat to Sheffield Wednesday but isn't expected to be out of action for too long.

The Black Cats made eleven changes for the game at Hillsborough from their weekend win over Bristol City and exited the competition with a 2-0 defeat. However, Dajaku was not involved in the matchday squad. 

Manager Alex Neil said: "I brought him on at Bristol and he tweaked his thigh. He would have been another one I could have put up top or I could have put at left wing back because he has played their before. He's another that was missing due to injury."

With Sunderland short on forwards in the squad, Neil was planning on using Dajaku as a striker for last night's cup match as he continued: "It's a minor one which is frustrating because we brought him on at the weekend. 

"We brought him on for Ellis because at the moment, we have got two centre forwards and Leon has played centre forward for us against Roma in Portugal so he knows how to do the role."

Neil switched things up for the game in attack using winger Jack Diamond as a centre forward to allow others to rest which proved to have it's own difficulties on a night against the Owls. 

Neil added: "They didn't create too many chances. It was mainly from us giving the ball away and being spread in the transition and countered.

"The difficulty is that normally what you would do to counter that is have a target at the top of the pitch so you don't need to keep risking it. Unfortunately for Jack, that's not the type of player he is.

"We didn't even bring Ross this evening and Ellis Simms has done 87 minutes at the weekend and he's played 45 minutes all of pre-season. For me to risk him for 10 or 15 minutes and he breaks down, I'd certainly have been kicking myself if that was the case so that was the route I decided to go down."

The hope is that Dajaku will be available for selection by the time they host Queens Park Rangers in their next Championship tie this weekend at the Stadium of Light.