Midfielder Sykes' season ended by quad injury

Mark Sykes will miss Bristol City's final four matches of the season

Bristol City midfielder Mark Sykes will not play again this season after suffering a quad injury during the warm-up of their draw with QPR last week.

Sykes was named in the starting XI at Loftus Road but pulled out of the match before kick-off and manager Liam Manning said his loss is "a big blow".

Goalkeeper Max O'Leary also remains a doubt for their home game against Sunderland on Friday due to an ankle injury.

"That's probably him done for the season. [He] pulled his quad, don't expect to see him for a while," Manning told BBC Radio Bristol.

"Gutted for him, he's gutted as well, you can see his performance level, done terrifically well especially at the top end of the pitch and he was quite key in some of the bits we were doing.

"We then have to make sure we get around him, look after him, get him back right but what it does do is open the door for somebody else to have an opportunity."

O'Leary had missed almost all of the week of training since also suffering an injury before the match, although he went on to play the full 90 minutes of the 1-1 draw.

Manning said he had come through a session on Thursday and "hopefully he will be okay for tomorrow".

Bristol City remain firmly in the driving seat for a play-off place in the Championship but face a challenging test against the Black Cats on Friday who are a place above them in the table in fourth.

While Sykes had started all but one of their past 15 matches, Manning believed there was enough flexibility in the squad to make up for his absence.

"It's a big, big strength of the lads, of the group, we've got that flexibility, it comes back to that where we have a structure but you want players to feel free and own elements of it and play football ultimately," Manning said.

O'Leary however has played every minute of Championship football this season and last season, with number two Stefan Bajic having only played twice for the club - both in the EFL Cup - since joining in 2022.

"Stef trained really well, played in the 21s I was down there watching it on Monday to see how he got on," Manning said.

"It's one of those until we're in that situation, until it has to happen, we'll deal with it."