DAVID VAUGHAN is the latest player to add to Sunderland's injury woes, with skipper Lee Cattermole on stand-by to return to captain the team at Manchester United tomorrow.

But after a week in which Steve Bruce has also lost the services of defender John O'Shea and goalkeeper Simon Mignolet, the Sunderland boss has received some encouraging news on the progress of striker Fraizer Campbell.

Campbell has not played for 15 months after requiring two operations on a knee problem that he picked up against Manchester City in the August of last year.

But the 24-year-old, who was not expected to return to first team duty until March, has been making significant progress ahead of schedule and Bruce has suggested the former Manchester United striker could be back before the middle of next month.

"Fraizer is just remarkable. To be three months ahead of schedule, we're hoping within 4-5 weeks he'll be playing again," said Bruce. "We hope that by Christmas he can be involved in the first team again. It's a quite remarkable achievement.

"It's testament to all the hard work he's done. If you'd seen the running he was doing yesterday, you'd just say ‘wow'. He's

had two cruciate injuries but he looks brand new and full of life.

"There's no sign of any limp or any deficiency. Mentally he's had to be really strong. He's missed the best part of two years in the two and a half he's been here."

Despite the positive news about Campbell, Bruce knows he has more short term concerns to focus on.

After the disappointment of learning he will be without Mignolet and O'Shea for weeks with the injuries picked up in last weekend's draw with Aston Villa, he will now have to give a late fitness test to Vaughan.

The former Blackpool midfielder has played the last five games at the hub of the Sunderland team and was expected to keep his place at Manchester United tomorrow afternoon.

But Vaughan has picked up a groin strain and Cattermole, who would also reclaim the captaincy following O'Shea's hamstring problem, has been deemed to be in the perfect frame of mind to start.

"Vaughan's touch and go. Lee's been disappointed but it's a huge test for him after being left out because it hadn't gone as well as he would have expected it to this season," said Bruce, who dismissed suggestions David Meyler was ahead of Cattermole after coming off the bench instead of him last week.

There has also been progress made by goalkeeper Craig Gordon, who has not played this season because of knee trouble. With Mignolet sidelined for at least eight weeks with a fractured eye socket, though, Gordon could do with returning to fitness sooner rather than later.

"We're hoping by the end of the month Craig will be back in full training," said Bruce. "We've also recalled Trevor Carson from his loan spell and Keiren Westwood's been knocking on the door for weeks.

"He's waited a long, long time to play in the Premier League. It couldn't be a more difficult stage for his first full one at Old Trafford but I'm sure he'll do very, very well. He's a very confident goalkeeper."

Sunderland's trip to Old Trafford coincides with Sir Alex Ferguson's 25th anniversary as Manchester United manager. Bruce, who was at the heart of the defence when Ferguson won his first league title in 1993, will never lose his admiration for his former boss.

"It's quite a remarkable achievement, it'll never, ever be beaten - 37 trophies is just quite remarkable in that time," said Bruce. "I was fortunate to probably see him at his best when he was thriving and striving to turn round Man U, and it wasn't easy.

"He got ferocious stick in the late 80s, early 90s. I probably saw him at his best. To win 12 (leagues) out of 20 is quite remarkable after not winning it for 26 years. Now you look back from afar at what he's done, it will never be beaten. Never."

He added: "What he did was that if you couldn't stand up to that then you were no use to him. If you couldn't stand up to him and his

demands, and many a player couldn't, then you couldn't play for Man U and meet the demands he wanted.

"He wanted people to respond to it and react to it rather than shrink from it. There's many a time when we've had it, we've all had it. It's part and parcel of it."