MARK Hughes applauded City’s “strong and dynamic” performance against Sunderland – and then revealed another injury setback for Abo Eisa.

The winger, who missed most of last season after two serious hamstring issues, will sit out the start of the new campaign.

Eisa was among the players not involved in the 2-0 win over the Black Cats at Valley Parade last night in the penultimate first-team friendly.

And Hughes admitted his injury is more “significant” than the other niggles and muscle strains affecting the others not playing.

Hughes said: “Abo doesn’t need any significant surgery or intervention but it’s going to be a little bit more than a couple of weeks for him.

“It’s a real shame because he’d worked exceptionally hard to get back. He’ll be okay but he’ll just have to be a little bit more patient with that.”

Second-half goals from Emmanuel Osadebe and Jamie Walker, with a penalty, capped an impressive display from City against the Championship side.

“I thought it was a really good performance on a lot of levels,” added Hughes.

“Fitness-wise, I was encouraged by what we showed. We were really strong and dynamic from the first minute to the last.

“We obviously made a lot of changes second half but the performance level didn’t really drop.

“We were up against quality opposition and for more than the most part I thought we were by far the better team.

“We had more of the play first half, more chances second half so it was pleasing.

“It’s still early days, we’re in pre-season so you can’t read too much into it. But we’re encouraged with what we saw.”

The watching City faithful enjoyed what they saw and Hughes, who used 21 outfield players, was pleased to see work from the training ground paying off.

“We see more of that on the pitch. That shows they are a real coachable group that take on information really well.

“There’s no point training and going through things you want to implement if you don’t execute them in game-time.

“Every time we play I see more and more of what we talk about and are trying to do.

“We look really dynamic at the top end of the pitch and that’s what we want to be as a team.

“We want good runners with good pace and attacking intent at the top end of the pitch with decent numbers.

“It’s important moving forward that we have players who recognise when they can join in late sometimes but at pace because that really disrupts teams.

“It’s about causing a bit of chaos.”

Vadaine Oliver made his first appearance when he came on for Andy Cook midway through the second half.

Hughes said: “Vadaine’s going to be a huge option for us. When he jumps for the ball, he’s head and torso above people at times so that’s a huge threat.

“At our level, you’ve got to have that physicality to your game along with the technical ability we undoubtedly have.”