Roy Keane is sweating on the fitness of Dean Whitehead ahead of Sunderland's game against Luton Town tomorrow.

Whitehead is suffering from a hamstring problem and has not trained all week.

Stephen Wright is still out of action as he recovers from knee surgery and Nyron Nosworthy is not in contention as he is still struggling with an abdominal injury.

If Whitehead does not recover, the Black Cats' boss will be left with no tried and tested right-back.

Whitehead, while first and foremost a midfielder, has played at right-back on several occasions recently to cover for the injuries to Wright and Nosworthy.

Keane said: "Dean's hamstring is still not quite right and he has not trained all week.

"We will have another look at him today and hopefully he will be fit, but if he does not come through then it leaves me with a problem.

"Nyron hasn't trained all week either and wasn't training today, so he is out. We've also had one or two players off with a bug.

"That means we're down to the bare bones again with probably only 12 or 14 players training this week. It's not ideal, but if we show desire, spirit and determination then we'll have a good chance this weekend."

Centre-back Stanislav Varga is available again after a suspension that ruled him out of last Saturday's win against Norwich.

Keane said: "That's a positive, but the back four did very well and kept a clean sheet against Norwich. It's good to have Stan back though."

Sunderland go into the Luton game seeking to extend their unbeaten run to six matches.

Luton ended their seven-game losing streak against high-flying Preston last weekend, winning 2-0 at Kenilworth Road.

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Cash turnstiles will be open at the Stadium of Light for tomorrow's game. Adult tickets, at #24, are available at the turnstile but concessionary tickets must be bought in advance from the ticket office, which is open from 10am until kick-off tomorrow.