IT'S a "tough" and potentially season defining week for Sunderland - and Mike Dodds has told his players they'll all have a part to play over the course of the next seven days as the Black Cats fight to keep their play-off hopes alive.

Today's trip to Norwich City is followed by a home game against leaders Leicester City on Tuesday before the long journey to face promotion hopefuls Southampton next Saturday, with a daunting week looking even more difficult after the crushing Jack Clarke injury blow.

Dodds is well aware of the challenge facing his young side but says Sunderland won't be fearful as they look to close the eight-point gap on the top six. And he says it's going to take a full squad effort to get through the next week, with two long trips making rotation inevitable.

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"They’re the things you take into consideration when you’re picking the team and your shape and your tactics because we are going to have to utilise the whole squad over the next three games, we’re going to need everyone," said Dodds.

"It’s going to be a tough week. But it’s a week, from a personal perspective, that I’m really looking forward to. I’m coming up against three really good coaches who have got really well-coached teams and have really good individuals who can execute the stuff they want to do.

"From a personal perspective it’s going to be a real challenging week and regardless of what happens I’ll be stronger for it coming out of it. We’ve shown when we’ve played these three teams previously that when we’re right at it, and we’re fully focused, we can get a positive outcome. So there shouldn’t be anything to fear.

"I’m not going into the games with any fear. I’m respectful of what we’re coming up against because they’re three really, really good teams but I’m not fearing the opposition in any way."

Sunderland need to find a way to hurt teams without their 15-goal top scorer Clarke and more than ever could do with their strikers stepping up. It's been a tough season for the frontmen, who have managed just three goals between them, but Dodds is working closely with Nazariy Rusyn, Mason Burstow and Hemir in an effort to get the best out of the forwards.

He said: "I don’t like relying on hope, if I’m being honest. What we’ve got to keep doing is just keep working with them and I think the point that I made after the game is a really important point: there’s going to be a lot of talk around Jack but when Jack signed for the football club 18-months or so ago, Jack wasn’t the Jack you see now and that’s because Jack has listened and worked really hard. There’s been a lot of work that’s gone into him behind the scenes.

"I know in the short-term that’s not going to give the fans a huge amount of reassurance, but what we have to do is keep working with the players we’ve got. We can’t mope or cry around the situation we’re in. We’ll be on the training pitch every day and we won’t be hoping that one of the strikers can find some consistency, we’ll just keep working with them."