United welcome back Elliott Moore and Cameron Brannagan as they look to bounce back after two defeats on the road this week.
Moore returns after an ankle injury while Brannagan is available again after being ruled out of the games at Plymouth and Morecambe after a collision in training last week.
Marcus Browne, Sam Baldock, Alex Gorrin and Jamie Hanson are all making good progress after injury but will not feature this weekend.
See Karl and Sam Long previewing the game in iFollow.
Sunderland Boss Alex Neil brings his seventh-placed Black Cats to the Kassam Stadium one place and one point ahead of the U’s, who he expects to be on the front foot on Saturday
“I wouldn’t say they will have nothing to lose, but I’d certainly say they’ll throw caution to the wind,” he said.
“I think they’ll go for it. Karl’s teams are naturally attacking anyway, they aren’t really set up to be defensive, they will try to score goals and they are one of the most threatening teams in the league, so it will make for an entertaining game.
“They are well-coached, they have some good players, they have fluctuated with their shape recently in terms of going with a back three and a back four, so we’ll be equipped and set up to cope with that.
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If this was the second or third game of the season, and you were looking ahead to the rest of the season, you go into this feeling a bit more cagey, trying to get something from the game but also making sure we are nice and solid.
“But we are at the stage of the season now – and it’s the same for every team – where points are at a premium, so there will be many more teams going for the game and trying to get the three points right from the off and make it quite open.”
“But I don’t think Oxford will just let us play. I’ve watched them and without the ball they probably don’t get the credit they deserve
