Alex Neil explained that due to players joining up with their countries, the international break isn't as beneficial as some fans may think. He also spoke of rumours linking Ross Stewart to several clubs in higher divisions.
FINE
"They trained on Thursday and Friday morning, and so far there's not been anything untoward for me to be concerned about. They're in fine fettle."
CIRKIN
"With Dennis, he's done a lot recently and we sort of liaised with England and Dennis himself. They wanted to call him up, and we just felt with the remaining games that he could maybe take a bit of a rest from this one."
BREAK
"Well I think how good the break has been first and foremost, we’ll hopefully see on Saturday. I think the difficulty we’ve got is everybody thinks we’ve got 10 days to prepare the next team. The problem we have at the moment is there are four or five internationals that have been away who have been regular starters for us and it’s regularly through the spine of the team as well."
ABSENTEES
"The likes of Ross Stewart, Corry Evans, Bailey Wright, Callum Doyle. All these lads haven’t been here, so to get any work done really in terms of preparation for the game and preparation for the squad is extremely difficult because the lads aren’t here. It’s not as productive as what I think the perception is."
STEWART
"It's his first call up. At this moment in time he’s an international player and no one can take that away from him. That’s a great achievement you know. Obviously if you look at Ross’ path to where he is at the moment he’s worked extremely hard to get that. We’re delighted for him and naturally he’s delighted, and hopefully that can continue."
TRANSFER LINKS
"Listen, I’ve got bigger concerns to worry about than keeping a player happy who has their own objectives in his career. The simple fact is I’ve got the Sunderland fans, the Sunderland community, the Sunderland club as a whole to concern myself with in terms of what it means to them. The fact is that Ross has done really well for us. The simple fact is that if we can continue to make progress and get ourselves out of this league then naturally, players will want to be here and play here. It’s as simple as that. He’s our contracted player. He's done well, but he’s done well having been given the chance by this club and I’m sure he’ll be respectful of that as well. Yeah, I’m not worrying about the remaining games thinking if I don’t win them or we don’t win them then Ross might see his future elsewhere or any other player for that matter. That doesn’t even cross my mind at the moment."
