Hull defender Alex Bruce is doubtful after picking up a groin injury in the midweek League Cup defeat by Spurs.
Sone Aluko (calf) and Robbie Brady (hernia) will have fitness tests, while on-loan Danny Graham is ineligible against his parent club.
Sunderland head coach Gus Poyet has no injury problems ahead of the game.
Poyet must decide whether to give forward Fabio Borini a place in the starting XI after his derby-winning goal last weekend.
MATCH PREVIEW
Momentum in football is the key to so many things. Hull have benefited enormously from it, rolling buoyantly into the Premier League on the back of last season's excellent promotion campaign, and are currently unbeaten at home.
Sunderland now need to show that they're gathering steam after last week's first win of the league season in the Tyne-Wear derby.Watch Hull V Sunderland Live,Watch Hull V Sunderland Live Stream, Watch Hull V Sunderland Free Live Stream, Watch Hull V Sunderland Online, Watch Hull V Sunderland Online Free, Hull V Sunderland Live, Hull V Sunderland live stream Online. Gus Poyet must have wondered what he'd let himself in for when his first game in charge proved to be an unmitigated capitulation at Swansea.
It was the worst kind of preparation for last week's local skirmish, only for his players to show the kind of resilience, fortitude and good old-fashioned backbone their relegation fight will surely demand in beating Newcastle.
The head coach played a blinder himself, with the injection of Fabio Borini from the bench coming at just the apposite moment.
In Borini, the Black Cats might just have brought in a regular match-winner, and in dispensing with, for now, some of the flashier excesses of Paolo Di Canio's summer shopping and reverting to the old guard - Lee Cattermole, Phil Bardsley, and perhaps even the most forgotten of men Wes Brown - there might just be a nucleus to the team to suggest the season is saveable amid the scorched earth left behind by the previous man in charge.
Even so, the last time the Black Cats had fewer points at this stage of a season was the year Neil Armstrong took one small step - 1969.
In the amber and black camp, Steve Bruce (plus his coaches Steve Agnew and Keith Bertschin) heads a notable list of Sunderland alumni in opposition at the KC Stadium.
Paul McShane, David Meyler and Ahmed Elmohamady all stand a good chance of facing their former employers, though the on-loan - and still goalless - Danny Graham is unavailable against his parent club.
I'm already planning to avoid all reference to penalties within earshot of the normally affable Bruce, not so much because of Wednesday's shoot-out loss, but for the furore which greeted Roberto Soldado's spot-kick in the Premier League meeting at White Hart Lane last Sunday.
Bruce described the handball given against Elmohamady as "a joke" - which has landed him with an FA misconduct charge. He used similar language to describe the dismissal of Michael Turner by Andre Marriner three years ago while Sunderland manager.
And guess who the referee is scheduled to be on Saturday?