Speaking to the press ahead of this weekend’s game against Sheffield Wednesday, Regis Le Bris explained the injury situation at Sunderland.
It has not been a good couple of weeks for Sunderland both on and off the pitch. The Black Cats have lost successive games for the first time this season, and now appear to be out of the race for automatic promotion.
That can change quickly, of course, and a win against Sheffield Wednesday on Friday night would go a long way to getting the Mackems back on track.
However, off the pitch, Regis Le Bris had bad news to share, with a triple injury blow affecting the Sunderland squad. Now, we’ve got the latest on that situation.
Regis Le Bris offers update on Le Fee, Ballard, Watson, and more
We knew going into this weekend that both Enzo Le Fee and Dan Ballard were facing six to eight weeks on the sidelines with their respective injuries.
When asked about these issues in his press conference (via the Sunderland YouTube channel), Le Bris had some surprisingly good news, all things considered.
He said: “It will probably be a bit less for Enzo, maybe four to six weeks, and probably six to eight for Ballard… It is a significant blow, yes. Everyone else is okay for tomorrow’s game, though.”
Le Bris was then quizzed about the situation regarding Tommy Watson, who has been working his way back to full fitness over the last week, and unfortunately, it’s not the best news we were hoping for on that front.
“For Tommy, he was in the session this morning, a full session, it’s positive for next week, but he won’t be available for Sheffield Wednesday. Ahmed Abdullahi, too, is still struggling with his previous issues, it’s not bad but he’s not available.”
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Sunderland’s squad is simply too small
While Le Bris was criticised for overworking players, with a suggestion that Le Fee’s injury was inevitable, and the idea that Chris Rigg is in need of a rest, there is a caveat to consider.
We did some digging into how many minutes every Sunderland player has played this season, and found a couple of interesting observations.
First and foremost, the Sunderland squad is just not deep enough, and has been obliterated by injuries earlier in the season. That left Le Bris unable to utilise the likes of Alan Browne, Salis Abdul Samed, and Romaine Mundle for rotation until very recently.
| Player | Games missed through injury |
| Alan Browne | 22 |
| Salis Abdul Samed | 23 |
| Romaine Mundle | 17 |
| Tommy Watson | 15 |
| Ian Poveda | 21 |
The knock-on effect of this has been the exertion suffered by key players in the team, with ten players registering over 2,000 minutes this season.
That is partly down to the fact Le Bris had to use them so often, but there are also players like Leo Hjelde, Milan Aleksic, and even youngster Trey Ogunsuyi who could and should have been given more gametime to ease the strain on the first-team regulars.
Clearly, Le Bris leans on the players he trusts the most, but that approach can only last so long before the repercussions hit home, as they have done for Sunderland over the last week.