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Ricky Sbragia reckons Carlos Edwards will provide Sunderland with a ready-made replacement for Steed Malbranque.
Malbranque is a Barclays Premier League ever-present for the Black Cats this season, but will miss the home game against Aston Villa this Saturday after reaching five yellow cards for the season.

Edwards impressed when starting against Bolton in the FA Cup 10 days ago and also played in Saturday's 1-1 draw at Boro, replacing Malbranque after the Frenchman suffered a dead-leg.

Malbranque was booked in the first half of the Tees-Wear derby.

"In an ideal world Steed would not miss the Villa game but he has the five yellow cards and Carlos Edwards gives us a quality replacement," said Sbragia, the manager.

"Carlos was excellent against Bolton; he covers a lot of ground and gets us up the field with his pace."

Edwards played eight games for Wolves during a loan spell at Molineux earlier this season and Mick McCarthy, their manager, has made no secret of his desire to re-sign the winger.

"There has been a lot of interest in Carlos but we don't want him to go, he's a Premier League player," said Sbragia.