Richardson suffered a dead leg in training on Monday and did no running yesterday, though he did join in a weights session with the rest of the squad.

Unless there is a quick and full recovery from the midfielder, he will not be involved against Vitoria de Setubal and the Municipal Stadium in Albufeira.

Richardson is the only doubt for tonight as the Black Cats look to build on Sunday's 3-1 win over Sporting Lisbon.

Boss Roy Keane said: "Other than Kieran, they've all come through the game and training fine. If there's any douby about Kieran, he won't be risked tonight.

"Darren Ward was the only one who didn't play on Sunday, and he will definitely start tonight because I want to be fair to all the players."

Danny Collins and goalscorer Nyron Nosworthy were the only players who featured for the full 90 minutes against Sporting, which also saw Roy O'Donovan and Anthony Stokes on target.

Keane will try to give as many players as possible a run-out again tonight.

He said: "Because of the size of squad I have, one or two had to play the full game on Sunday. Maybe Yorkie and one or two others will just play 45 minutes or an hour. And we have remember Bardo (Phil Bardsley) had an injury at the end of last season. We have to be careful with one or two of them."

The Sporting encounter was entertaining for a pre-season game, with plenty of keen tackling.

Keane expects another good examination against Vitoria tonight.

They were sixth in the Portuguese top flight last season, winning the League Cup, and played out a 1-1 draw with Cardiff City on Saturday.

Keane said: "There might not be as much of an edge as their was against Sporting but I expect a good quality game. They're top flight opposition and I'm expecting their lads will be good on the ball like Sporting were the other night.

"If we get out of it what we got out of the Sporting game, I'll be delighted. We did a lot of tackling, a lot of closing down and then I think we showed some good quality when we had the ball."