Bailey Wright update after Sunderland defender suffers injury in Ipswich Town victory

There was concern at Portman Road when Wright clashed heads with Ipswich Town substitute Aaron Drinan, leading to the stretcher being brought onto the pitch.

Wright was able to get to his feet but was immediately replaced by Dion Sanderson.

The Australian will be assessed ahead of the visit of Gillingham this weekend, but Johnson is hopeful that he has not suffered a concussion.

“Bailey [Wright] took a bit of a whack in the mush,” Johnson said.

“His lips are really swollen and bleeding, but I don’t think it was anything higher – it was a bump in the mouth, rather than the head, so hopefully he will recover and be fine and there won’t be any concussion.”

Tuesday night saw Johnson’s squad depth generally continue to improve, with Lynden Gooch returning after a positive COVID-19 test.

Luke O’Nien was able to make another appearance, while Tom Flanagan and Will Grigg are expected to return soon.

Johnson does feel a punishing fixture schedule is having an impact right across the division, but feels he is in a good position to cope.

“Sometimes the entertainment suffers just because of how many games there are,” he said.

“It’s hard to be sharp as a tack when there is a game every three days, but we can’t complain because we have got a big squad, we have got a good squad, and there’s a couple to come back in Grigg and Flanagan reasonably soon.”

Wright had been lucky to avoid injury in the opening minutes of the game, when Kayden Jackson was shown a red card for a reckless challenge on the defender.

Jackson drew strong criticism from his manager Paul Lambert after the game, and took to twitter to apologise for his challenge.

“I take full accountability for what happened tonight, I’ve cost the boys the 3 points in what was a massive game,” he wrote

“For that I apologise, there was no malice intended on my behalf but I’m aware it’s nowhere near good enough and I’ll do my utmost to put it right as soon as possible.”