LUKE O’NIEN will miss Sunderland’s next two matches after picking up his tenth booking of the season in last night’s home defeat to Leicester City – with Mike Dodds feeling the defender’s absence sums up the way his luck is going at the moment.

O’Nien has been walking a disciplinary tightrope for a number of weeks, but he finally tumbled over the edge when he was booked at the start of the second half for a foul on Yunus Akgun close to the centre-circle.

The defender will now miss Saturday’s game at Southampton and the following weekend’s home match with QPR, and while Jenson Seelt and Dan Ballard remain available to play alongside each other at centre-half, Dodds claims O’Nien’s suspension epitomises the way things have been going in the last few weeks.

“I feel like I can’t catch a break at the moment, I’ll be honest with you, with coming in and not having Ballard, who I thought grew into the game against Leicester and was outstanding, and with injuries to some other key players,” said Sunderland’s interim head coach.

“We’re going to be without Luke now, so I feel like I can’t catch a break. These things are sent to test us though, and this is a good challenge for me. I’ve got to find ways of turning these defeats into wins. We’re going to be working really hard to do that.”

Last night’s game might have finished somewhat differently had referee Sunny Singh Gill awarded Sunderland a penalty when Dan Ballard went down under a challenge from Hamza Choudhury in stoppage time.

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Dodds could see no reason why Ballard would have tumbled in the box without being fouled, but was not about to start berating the referee for his decision.

“Dan’s adamant it was a penalty, and my initial gut feeling is, ‘Why would he go down?’ he said. “I’m one of those guys where it’s gone now though. People are going to be frustrated by it, and the lads are frustrated by it, but I can’t affect it now.

“The reality is I’ve got to concentrate on the next game, and that’s the way my mind operates. I don’t get overly caught up in those decisions. If it was a penalty, we’re going to be frustrated, but the reality is there’s nothing we can do about it.”