This is why key Sunderland midfielder will miss Wigan Athletic game

Evans has only missed one league game so far this season - the 2-1 defeat to Sheffield United at Bramall Lane in August.

The Northern Ireland international was one of a number of Sunderland players to pick up a yellow card in a difficult first half in South Wales, the Black Cats falling two goals behind before coming close to completing an impressive comeback in the second half.

"It doesn't help because that's where we had to be really aggressive today, in that central area - maybe that's why they picked up the yellow cards," Mowbray said.

"Swansea do play through the midfield, they do play this box in midfield, and they do try to overload you with the extra men.

"We wanted to go toe-to-toe and see if we could get our wide players and our full-backs joining in in wide areas, but they got through too easy in the first half. In the second half we deserve a lot of credit - ultimately we got no points, but they did deserve credit."

Mowbray will now weigh up his options in the 32-year-old's absence. Edouard Michut, Abdoullah Ba and Jay Matete could all be in contention for their first league start of the campaign, or Mowbray could alternatively play Dan Neil in the deep-lying role and therefore bring another attacking player into his starting XI.

Wigan currently sit one point behind Sunderland in the table after a 3-1 defeat to Cardiff City on Saturday.