Sunderland manager, Tony Mowbray has confirmed that several international players are yet to return, leaving him with selection dilemmas.
It has been admitted by the Black Cats’ boss that he isn’t sure who will be available to face Stoke City.
With key men Dan Neil and Dan Ballard out through suspension and injury respectively, they won’t play a part.
Pierre Ekwah, Alex Pritchard and Bradley Dack are all back in training. It is still unclear whether their match fitness is there.
There are also several players missing from training due to international commitments over the past two weeks.
What has Tony Mowbray said?
Nine players departed from the North East to join up with squads across the world.
With several potential starters taking part in games over the break, can we expect to see them on Saturday at 3pm?
Mowbray confirmed, to Sunderland Echo, that his players hadn’t yet returned: “We have to prepare the team. The sad thing for me is that we haven’t even had some of the players back yet from international duty.
“They won’t be back until tomorrow and in my mind, they won’t be able to start. How can you prepare your team when you can’t train with them?”
It is a fair point from the manager who would have liked to have his squad together more than 24 hours before a match.
With injuries and suspensions, it may be necessary that some players get involved in the Potters clash despite not training.
Mowbray didn’t want to use this as an excuse, however: “It’s not ideal. It’s not a moan because every manager with international footballers has that.
“We’ll get on with it, and whoever is out there training tomorrow – we’ll put the team together from there.”
A difficult situation for the manager to deal with but with the strength in depth at the Stadium of Light, hopefully, they can manage.