Sunderland's hopes of achieving promotion to the Championship later this month were left hanging by a thread on Wednesday as they suffered a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Lincoln City in the first-leg of their play-off showdown.

An underwhelming display by the Black Cats allowed the Imps to seal a vital victory at Sincil Bank in-front of their supporters.

Tom Hopper opened the scoring for Lincoln in the second-half of the clash before Brennan Johnson doubled his side's advantage by diverting Lee Burke's rushed clearance into the goal.

Sunderland's misery was compounded by the fact that they lost Denver Hume to a hamstring injury in the opening stages of the fixture.

The full-back, who only made his return to action last month following a prolonged period on the sidelines, is now set to miss Saturday's return leg.

Meanwhile, Conor McLaughlin has been ruled out for the rest of the season due to an issue with his back.

Making reference to this particular duo, Sunderland manager Lee Johnson admitted that whilst he is disappointed by the timing of these injuries, his side must not dwell on the setbacks.

Speaking to the Sunderland Echo about the pair, the 39-year-old said: "Denver has a hamstring injury.

"It's disappointing, and it's happened on too many occasions to different players this season.

"It's been like that for the last three months.

"We can't do much about that, we've just got to get on with it."

Johnson later added: "That's just something we've got to deal with going into the next game.

"And Conor [McLaughlin] is out for the season with a stress fracture of the back.

"So we've got what we've got."

GIVEMESPORT's Joshua Cole says...

When you consider that Sunderland are already having to play without Dion Sanderson and Jordan Willis due to their respective injuries, the last thing that they would have wanted is to suffer further setbacks involving their back-line.

However, with McLaughlin and Hume now set to miss Saturday's must-win clash with Lincoln, it will be intriguing to see who Johnson turns to for inspiration.

Having played in a host of different positions during his time at the Stadium of Light, Luke O'Nien could be asked to slot in at full-back with Callum McFadzean lining up at centre-back.

Yet regardless of who is given the nod to feature this weekend, Sunderland know that a failure to produce their very best will result in elimination from the play-offs for the second time in three years.