Sunderland manager Tony Mowbray has shared an early piece of team news ahead of the Wearside club's Championship clash against Huddersfield Town. 

The Lowdown: Sunderland on the road to Huddersfield

The Black Cats are in action tonight as they take on the Yorkshire club at the John Smith's Stadium, following on from their 1-1 draw against Luton Town over the weekend.

Having rescued a point against the Hatters after being 1-0 down at half-time, Sunderland will undoubtedly be looking to pick up all three points against their struggling hosts here.

Looking ahead to tonight's match against the Terriers, it appears that Mowbray has shared an early hint over the role that one player in his squad might have in this game.

The Latest: Mowbray on Simms' fitness

Speaking in his latest press conference, the Sunderland boss discussed how much game-time Ellis Simms is likely to get against Huddersfield after the striker made his return to action against Luton following a toe injury.

Mowbray said: "Maybe he will get 10 mins more on Wednesday night. The game will dictate. He is a young boy, I know he looks a big man on the pitch. He is working hard to get his general fitness up. It will be after the international break before he plays 90 mins in my mind."

The Verdict: The right approach

In the eight league games in which he featured prior to picking up his toe injury, Simms had found the net three times for the Black Cats.

In fact, out of the seven games that he missed through this injury, Sunderland only managed to win one of them, which suggests that he has been a glaring loss for the Wearsiders in recent weeks.

To highlight how much of an attacking threat the 21-year-old carries, only Ross Stewart (3.86) has a higher rate of shots at goal per 90 minutes than Simms' 3.06 among the Sunderland squad.

Considering what Mowbray had to say, it seems as though the club's coaching staff are correctly taking a slow approach in terms of getting Simms back out on the pitch rather than throwing him in at the deep end after being out for so long and running the risk of aggravating the injury.