Cattermole will miss new boss Dick Advocaat’s Sunderland bow at West Ham tomorrow, as he serves the second game of his two-match ban.
Cattermole spent the first two months of 2015 on the treatment table with groin and knee problems, which the Teessider has still been feeling in his three games since returning to action.
None are serious, yet Sunderland have used Cattermole’s break from first-team action to fine-tune his fitness ahead of his return against Newcastle United in a fortnight.
The Teessider proved to be a huge miss for ex-boss Gus Poyet at the turn of the year and his absence was similarly noticeably in Sunderland’s capitulation against Villa last weekend.
But Cattermole is one of three players definitely ruled out of the trip to West Ham, as Advocaat begins his nine-game spell to keep Sunderland in the Premier League.