INJURIES PRE B'MOUTH

When it rains at Sunderland, it pours. Regis Le Bris will be without the following players for our trip to the south coast: Reinildo Mandava, Dennis Cirkin, Nordi Mukiele, Brian Brobbey, Jocelin Ta Bi, Romaine Mundle...

FULHAM INJURIES

“Jocelin might be in the same position as Romaine but with a different injury. He might need surgery, so a couple of weeks or months. Still a bit early. It will be shorter for Nordi and Brian, between two and four weeks depending on the way they respond to treatment and rehab, so let’s wait a bit. It won’t last too long. Dennis is getting better, like Rei. We miss them but they are getting better and the timeline should be shorter, around 10 days maybe depending on the last stage of rehab.”

TRAORE/XHAKA BETTER NEWS

“Traore returned to full training this week and also Granit played 20 minutes (v Fulham) and reacted well, so good news on this side.”

XHAKA TO START?

“He might, because he is in a good place now, so we will be really progressive. He reacted really well after the Fulham game and it is always a step-by-step process. At the minute he is in a good place. I didn’t give you the answer!”