Sunderland defender Jordan Willis will miss the rest of the season after suffering a serious knee injury.

Willis is due to undergo surgery on a ruptured patella tendon which forced him off just minutes into Tuesday’s defeat at Shrewsbury in Sky Bet League One.

The 26-year-old had been managing a tendonitis issue in the affected area.

“It’s probably a minimum term of six months and he’ll be a huge miss,” Sunderland manager Lee Johnson said.

“He had been nursing the injury for a while. I really feel for him – he’s a great lad and a really good player with Championship quality and physicality.”