It was one of the truly horrific accidents seen in the modern-day game, and might not only have ended a glittering football career but also his ability to walk.

Surgeons said that had treatment not been so prompt and correct, he could have faced amputation.

It meant that on Saturday there were actually three comebacks on view – Cisse from that injury, Sunderland from a goal down and Roy Keane from rumours that he had left the club.

But the greatest of those returns was unquestionably Cisse's.

What flashed through the striker's mind when Steed Malbranque's header, midway through the second-half, dropped into the no-man's land between himself and Rovers goalkeeper Paul Robinson, we may never know.

It was classic leg-break territory, and it's a tribute to the courage of Cisse that he sprinted forward and stretched without hesitation to turn the ball over the onrushing keeper for a match-winning goal.

It was a lightning-fast reaction which went a long way to giving his side three much-needed points.

And if the French forward becomes a real and genuine hero to Sunderland fans this season, this might have been the moment where he cemented a special place in the hearts of supporters who were already taking to him.

Cisse's 70th-minute strike and Kenwyne Jones goal just over 20 minutes earlier, overturned Rovers first-half lead to propel Sunderland from 19th to 11th in the league, and quelled the panic which had in part led to wild rumours of Keane walking out 24 hours before the game.

It also justified Keane's assertion that there was nothing much wrong with his side – his team just needing the rub of the green in some games.

Those hopes looked well-founded as Rovers made the sort of flying start which threatened to overwhelm the Wearsiders - an aerial bombardment was launched on Marton Fulop's goal from the opening whistle in a frantic opening quarter of an hour.

The home team's tactics were based either on the fact that Sunderland did not have too many tall players in their side, or that the Sunderland keeper might be suspect to crosses into his box. Possibly both.

And it was a cross in first-half injury-time that led to Blackburn taking the lead.

Morten Gamst Pedersen swung a good corner in from the left and Chris Samba, at the far post and just outside the six-yard box, powered down a header which Dean Whitehead could not prevent crossing the line.

"I don't think my keeper could do too much about the goal," shrugged Keane afterwards.

"Chris Samba is 6ft 4ins tall, and I don't care who you are – if someone puts in a good ball into your box and a big man gets on the end of it, you're going to struggle."

But while the manager cast no blame over the goal, he still blasted his players in the interval for their failure to create more, and he demanded the response which he got as soon as the second-half got under way.

Sunderland came out all guns blazing, and Cisse's ball across the box from the left in the 48th minute saw Jones denied by Paul Robinson.

Seconds later the Wearsiders were level. Robinson limply palmed a corner back in the direction of Jones, who acrobatically flicked it backwards over his shoulder and into goal from four yards out.

And after Kieran Richardson had tested Robinson with a fine free-kick just before the hour, Sunderland took the lead through Cisse's opportunist 71st-minute strike – his fifth league goal in 10 starts.

His celebration was long and meandering as he played a game of 'catch' with his team-mates before sprinting into the dugout to shake hands with a bemused Keane.

One win does not a season make, in the same way that four defeats don't either.

But the signs on Saturday were positive, and Cisse's charismatic stamp on this particular game could well mark another turning point in what is becoming a fascinating campaign for the Black Cats.