DAN Neil is set to captain Sunderland in the absence of Luke O'Nien against Birmingham City on Saturday - and Eliezer Mayenda is poised to be included in the matchday squad for the first time since his summer arrival.

O'Nien - who has worn the armband this season in the absence of injured club captain Corry Evans - is suspended for Saturday's visit of Rooney's Birmingham, with midfielder Neil set to step in as skipper.

Dan Ballard will also miss Saturday's game, meaning Sunderland will be without both of their first choice central defenders, with Jenson Seelt and Nectar Triantis both in contention to make their first Championship starts for the Black Cats since joining in the summer.

"We've been having a look at them and doing a lot of attack vs defence and seeing who stands up to the quality of attackers we've got," said Mowbray as he assessed his selection options at centre-half.

"They're the decisions we have to make. Whoever plays, they're part of the group and squad and understand what we have to do."

While Mowbray is still pondering who gets the nod in the defence, he's made his mind up on who will wear the armband.

"I would suggest 99% in my mind Dan (Neil) will be captain and rightly so, he deserves it," said Mowbray.

"He's starting to show real leadership qualities on the grass around the position he plays, understanding how we need to push in around the ball or if we need to get tucked in off the side or if we need to sit off a bit here, how we roll people into different areas.

"He understands football and he can make it happen on the grass rather than me screaming like an idiot for 90 minutes. It's good when you have players who understand and move people around on the pitch for you."

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Meanwhile, Mayenda finally looks set to be involved in the matchday squad on Saturday. The striker has not yet featured for Sunderland having suffered an injury in his first training session at the club after joining from Sochaux in the summer.

He's stepped up his recovery in recent weeks, played a behind closed doors friendly against Hibs and travelled to Swansea last weekend even though he wasn't named in the squad.

Mowbray said: "I think there's every chance he'll be on the bench this weekend.

"It'll be a cameo role if he does come on, he's still only played one 90 minutes against Hibernian behind closed doors. He hasn't played much so we'll have to be careful. He's going to play in a bounce game next Wednesday, he'll play in that regardless of whether he gets minutes this weekend because we need to get him playing.

"He's training really well, he's a lovely guy who wants to ask questions and get better - and he keeps hitting the back of the net in the training.

"As coaching staff we're looking forward to seeing him out there but what we don't know is how quickly he'll get up to the intensity of the Championship. It's OK playing in training games but it's also about how you cope with me screaming at him to get back and chase the opposition full back! He has to be able to do that as well.

"But he's very talented, and he's got a wand of a left foot with real power in it. He's very dynamic, quick, fast. There's nothing stopping him being a really good player and hopefully he can put that onto the pitch at first-team level."