STEVE BRUCE reckons Lee Cattermole could return to action for Sunderland ahead of schedule.

Cattermole was expected to be out for three months after suffering medial ligament damage on October 17, but Bruce wouldn’t be surprised to see him back in action sooner.

"Catts has been out for three weeks already, and Cattermole being Cattermole, I would think he will be back more quickly than the doctors have predicted,” he told the Sunderland Echo.

"The kind of person he is, I have just got this gut feeling that he might be out for eight weeks rather than the 12 weeks that was said at the start.”

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