SUNDERLAND face an anxious wait to discover the severity of Dan Ballard's injury after the defender left Plymouth's Home Park on crutches and with his foot in a brace.

Ballard was thrown up-front for the final seconds after Joe Edwards scored what proved to be the winner for Plymouth appeared to land awkwardly after leaping to win a header. He had to helped off the pitch by physios.

Regis Le Bris said it was too soon to know the extent of the injury in the immediate aftermath of the game with Sunderland now facing a nervous wait to get to the bottom of the problem.

Losing Ballard again would be a major blow, with the centre-half having just returned to injury following summer surgery. The Black Cats are already without one key defender after Aji Alese was ruled out for 10-12 weeks before the international break.

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Chris Mepham was on the bench for the first time on Saturday after his deadline day move.

Sunderland now have a full week on the training pitches ahead of the game against Middlesbrough after suffering their first Championship defeat of the season.

Boss Le Bris was in diplomatic mood after the Home Park setback.

He said: “We scored two goals and it’s never easy to score two goals away. We conceded three goals as well so that’s our problem.

“The first half we had kind of control of the game but it wasn’t a strong control and we felt we had many problems to solve, especially their wingers.

“With the ball we felt it was possible to unbalance their team but we didn’t make the most of that possession.

“A key point is we can have the ball and defend and not always showing a willingness to unbalance (the opposition) and create chances.

“During the second half we still had this problem with their wingers, who were strong today.

“The game became more chaotic as well with many second balls. We lost one, two or three balls during our build-up.

“Our shape was open and at that moment they had the possibility to attack and create chances.

“We need to learn from this experience. When we are not so good with the ball, you can still manage the game to win or to keep the score. It wasn’t the case today.

“It’s been interesting to observe the reaction in the dressing room. We were not too optimistic after our four wins in a row and we are not too pessimistic after a loss.

“Now it’s a question of balance.”