Manning admits Bristol City winger's season is probably 'done' after injury (2025)

Bristol City welcome Regis Le Bris and Sunderland to Ashton Gate for their penultimate home match of the season

Liam Manning has admitted Mark Sykes' season has likely been ended prematurely by a quad injury sustained during Bristol City's warm-up ahead of their draw with QPR, while the Robins will decide today whether or not Max O'Leary can feature against Sunderland on Good Friday.

The Reds welcome Regis Le Bris' side to Ashton Gate tomorrow as they look to further boost their hopes of a top six finish this term. The Black Cats currently sit fourth in the Championship, 12 points adrift of the automatic promotion places albeit with their place in the play-offs already confirmed.

A win for City would ensure they remain fifth over the Easter weekend. If other results were to also go their way elsewhere in the division, Manning's Reds could extend the gap to seventh place to as many as seven points ahead of the final three games of the campaign.

Sykes, who has been key to the Robins' success in the second half of the season, was named in the starting line-up to face QPR last time out. However, the Ireland international was replaced at the last minute by Yu Hirakawa with what was later confirmed to be a quad injury. Initially, Manning wasn't sure how long it would see the 27-year-old sidelined but now, the City boss isn't expecting to see him in action again this term.

"Yeah not great," the head coach said in his post-match press conference when asked about the winger's condition. "That's probably the season done for him. He pulled his quad so I don't expect to see him for a while.

"I'm gutted for him and he's gutted as well. You could see, his performance level, he'd done terrifically well, especially top end of the pitch and he was quite key in some of the bits that we were doing. Big, big blow to lose him, I know he's gutted, we're obviously gutted but, it's part and parcel of it. We then have to make sure we get around him, look after him, and get him back right.

"What it does do is then open the door for somebody else to have an opportunity."

Sykes wasn't the only City player to pick up an issue in the warm-up at Loftus Road. As well as the winger, Max O'Leary received treatment ahead of kick-off on Saturday afternoon having rolled his ankle but managed to play the full 90 minutes as the Reds drew 1-1 with the Hoops.

Speculation surfaced on social media earlier this week that the 28-year-old's season would also be brought to a premature end. Although his injury has impacted his involvement on the training ground over the course of the week so far, his head coach remains hopeful he will be able to play a part against the Black Cats on Friday afternoon.

"He's not trained all week," admitted Manning. "That pitch was dangerous, we flagged it. You see the linesman at the end, there was a real rut on the end of it where the grass met the astro so it was quite dangerous.

"He went over on it, got through the game, not trained all week but hopefully, he'll be okay for tomorrow. He came through this morning okay.

"He did a little bit this morning, not a lot, so you have to see how he responds to that and then obviously we'll make a decision today."

On a more positive note, the Robins' boss confirmed that Scott Twine came through his cameo against Marti Cifuentes' side unscathed while young defender Josh Campbell-Slowey has also returned to full training ahead of the final four games of the run-in. The teenager is yet to make his senior debut for the Reds but is someone Manning has consistently spoken highly of.

Meanwhile, Harry Cornick has been missing from each of City's four matchday squads since the March international break. That is by no means unusual given the fact the 30-year-old has spent much of the season on the fringes of Manning's squad. However, the head coach has confirmed the former Luton Town forward's recent absence is a result of injury, rather than a selection decision with it unclear, at this stage, whether or not he will feature again this term.

"No," Manning simply told Bristol Live when asked if the forward was fit. "He pulled his hamstring in training striking a ball.

"He's touch and go by the end of the season, it's real tight but he's not a million miles away."