Bruce had feared he could be without Bent for up to three weeks after the England international limped away from Saturday's 1-0 Barclays Premier League victory over Arsenal with a tight hamstring.

However, scans have revealed no significant damage, and that means Bent, who scored his ninth goal of the season against the Gunners to further his claim on a place in Fabio Capello's England World Cup squad, could yet line up against the Latics this weekend.

Bruce said: "Darren came on to the training ground on Thursday morning and worked with the physios.

"He worked in the gym on Wednesday and if he doesn't have a reaction from the work he has done, then he has got an outstanding chance to be involved.

"The scans have revealed that there is no real tear there, so it was probably a matter of cramp and tightness.

"We will see how he is on Friday, but that would obviously be a huge boost to us all if I have got him available."

Should Bent be able to retain his place in the starting line-up at the DW Stadium, that would come as a big plus for Bruce as Kenwyne Jones completes his three-match ban.

bounding around

The Black Cats manager faced going into the match with only Fraizer Campbell of his main frontmen available, and having to look towards David Healy and Daryl Murphy to provide the back-up.

However, the news the £10m man could yet make it is a matter for some celebration.

Bruce said: "It's delightful. We were thinking at the beginning of the week that he was going to be out for at least three weeks with the slightest hamstring strain.

"With a muscle injury, you can't take any chances, so to see him bounding around the training ground today was fantastic news for us as a club because he is playing at the top of his game and performing very, very well."

Sunderland will be without keeper Craig Gordon for three months after he broke his arm in a collision with Tottenham's Jermain Defoe on 7th November, but influential midfielder Lee Cattermole is closing in on a return from his knee injury.

The 21-year-old was initially ruled out for 12 weeks after damaging his medial ligament during the 1-0 win over Liverpool on October 17, but his manager is hopeful he could be back sooner than expected.

Bruce said: "Lee is bang on schedule. He is six weeks now and he is bounding around the training ground too, so I would still think he is bang on for three weeks."

famous victory

That would represent another fillip for the Black Cats, although they have performed admirably in the face of adversity in recent weeks.

They were without Gordon, Cattermole, Jones and the suspended Michael Turner, all of whom would probably have started, for the Arsenal game, but still managed to claim a famous victory.

Bruce said: "We were without three or four last week, and that's the value of the squad you need at this level, it's as simple as that.

"We maybe haven't got the most huge squad, but we gave certainly got a bit of quality in depth, which is obviously important, and that has been proved.

"We missed four players last week from the squad and got a result against the Arsenal, so it bodes well."