Birmingham is Sunderland's final match before the international break. Tony Mowbray has discussed the impact of the break on his players - many of them are either injured or simply exhausted from playing every week.
PLAYERS CLOSE TO A RETURN
“Aji Alese is probably two or three weeks away from back in full training and back competing, he’s going to probably have to play some gametime with the under 23’s and I think Pembele is not too dissimilar, three to four weeks, Embleton at this moment we’re not sure of a time scale, he gets so far down the line then has a little setback, then pushes on again and I don’t want to put a timescale on Embo. Like anything in our football industry you can look and think ‘Oh in two months time we’ll have some squad’ yet in two months time we’ve probably picked up a different three or four injuries I would suggest somewhere down the line and that’s generally what happens you get people back and you lose other people so we’ve got a squad of players and we have to trust in them and when their opportunities come like this weekend, not through injury but through suspension, they have to stand up and make your life even more difficult by being a standout player and doing really well and making it difficult to change a winning team.”
INTERNATIONAL BREAK
“I don’t think that deep about them, they are what they are, sometimes you think ‘oh I’ll do some work with the team’ and then who’s going to be away, Hume’s going to be away, Ballard’s going to be away, Huggins is going to be away, you can’t do any work with the back line really unless you use the young players on the periphery which of course you’re constantly working with them every day anyway. Work with the strikers, (laughs) we do that every day as well so really you’re talking about teamwork and you can’t work your team until probably the Thursday a week past after they’ve come back from that second international game so if anything they’re a bit frustrating.”
TIME FOR A REST
”They put the brakes on how quickly you would accelerate the work for your team and how they play and what we do in your jobs and your hoping that they come back fit but, other than that it’s a chance for the boys who’ve been playing pretty regularly, you know some of the lads who’ve played just about every game but are not involved in internationals it’s an opportunity to give them some time to be with their families, go and relax, if they want to get on a plane and go somewhere with a bit of sun they go and do that, maybe three or four days of the week they train so they keep ticking over really and then that second week when the internationals start coming back around Wednesday or Thursday we’re preparing for the next game. In between you have to assess who’s played what minutes and who needs a break and who doesn’t need a break and you manage the week like that.”
