MICHAEL BEALE is hoping Patrick Roberts did not suffer a significant injury in Sunderland’s 1-1 draw at Rotherham United last night.

Roberts went down in obvious pain after suffering a muscular injury while clearing the ball in the early stages of the game at the New York Stadium.

He was substituted within the opening 15 minutes, and Beale is hoping the winger’s early withdrawal will have prevented a more serious problem from developing.

The Sunderland boss said: “He (Roberts) said he felt it being tight, so we’ll obviously get it looked at, but he doesn’t feel as though he’s popped it so we might be lucky there.

“That’s the schedule that we’ve had. It’s been a whirlwind ten days with the three games, and we had two days where we couldn’t really train because of the high winds. There’s not been a lot of time so I’m getting to know this group on the go.”

Beale got his first look at Timothee Pembele in a match situation last night, with the French full-back making his senior Sunderland debut after coming off the bench to replace Jenson Seelt.

Losing Niall Huggins for the rest of the season last week was a major blow, but with Aji Alese back on the bench at Rotherham and Dennis Cirkin also back in training, Beale is happy with his full-back options.

He said: “I haven’t had a chance to see a lot of him (Pembele). We’ve only had two or three sessions, so I’m learning a lot about him.

“Jenson hadn’t played 90 minutes for a long while, and he did fantastic at Hull, I thought he was one of the picks of our players. We knew that going 60 or 70 minutes (at Rotherham), we’d have to rotate that. The game was asking for it as well.

“I haven’t seen much of Timothee, but we’ve got him, Aji is now fit and Dennis is back in training as well. Losing Niall Huggins was a blow, but I think we’re blessed in the full-back positions. I think we’ve got three or four outstanding young full-backs.”