Soccer-Sunderland's Rodwell to miss West Brom clash with knee injury

Jan 18 (Reuters) - Injury-prone midfielder Jack Rodwell will miss Sunderland's Premier League match against West Bromwich Albion on Saturday after damaging the medial ligaments in his knee during last weekend's 3-1 defeat by Stoke City. It was feared that the 25-year-old was set for a lengthy spell on the sidelines but scans have revealed the problem is not as severe as first thought and manager David Moyes hopes to have the midfielder back in a couple of weeks. "Jack had a medial ligament injury and was scanned on Tuesday. He got it in the game on Saturday. The scan has not really come up with anything, so I'm hoping it shouldn't keep Jack out for too long," Moyes told British media. "He's just beginning to get a few games under his belt, so to have to take him out again is another blow. The only positive is that I don't think we're talking weeks and weeks. "They (the medical staff) were worried that he'd opened up his medial ligament, but the scan has not shown a great deal so we're hoping that he might just have to stay off it for a week or so. Let's see how he is." Sunderland, who suffered an early FA Cup exit at Burnley on Tuesday, are second-bottom in the table and will hope to get back to winning ways against West Brom. (Reporting by Shravanth Vijayakumar in Bengaluru)