Sunderland lead striker Darren Bent is backing John Mensah to fill the void left by suspended defender Titus Bramble.
Bent believes the self-styled 'Rock of Gibraltar' can step back in having lost his place following an injury on the opening day of the season.
"Titus has been fantastic in the last few weeks and it was unfortunate he was sent off against his former team, in the one game where he will have wanted everything to go well," Bent told safc.com.
"He will be a big loss but we've got big John Mensah to step in. He was our best defender by far when he played last year.
"The fact that we have someone like that who can step in shows the depth of our squad.
"We will lose a player who has been playing so well but can replace him with John, who is a fantastic defender."