On loan Roma midfielder Enzo Lee Fee is facing up to eight weeks on the sidelines with a hamstring injury sustained in the last outing against Hull City.
Sunderland’s 1-0 defeat against Hull City last time out has a lot of negatives. It was the club’s first home league defeat of the Championship season and it also handed Regis Le Bris two fresh injuries.
Enzo Le Fee was forced off at half-time and Dan Ballard was also injured during the game. Le Fee and Ballard now face eight weeks injured with muscular injuries, in what is a huge blow for Sunderland in the race for promotion. In particular the injury to Le Fee is worrying.
Since arriving on loan from Roma during the January transfer window, the Frenchman has been a revelation with one goal and one assist in eight Championship games, with the 25-year-old’s sheer quality in display for everyone to see.
And it seems as though news of his injury hasn’t just disappointed Sunderland, but Roma too.
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Roma officials worried after Enzo Le Fee injury at Sunderland
Roma signed Le Fee in a £20million deal from Rennes last summer. But he featured just six times in Serie A before leaving for Sunderland with Le Fee deemed as bit of flop for Claudio Ranieri’s side.
Since, news of Le Fee’s injury has reached Roma and the Italian media. Gazzetta dello Sport has revealed that Le Fee’s latest has Roma ‘trembling’ and worried about what it might mean in the hopes that Sunderland go on to sign Le Fee permanently.
Sunderland have a £20million obligation to buy Le Fee in the event that they earn promotion this season. Gazzetta dello Sport’s report hints at Roma being keen to cash in on Le Fee, who was suffering with a knee injury in the first half of the season, adding that his latest hamstring injury ‘complicates the comeback plans’.
Danny Collins critical of Regis Le Bris after the injury to Enzo Le Fee
Le Fee had barely played for Roma in the first half of the season. He featured six times in the league and started four of those games. But in the two months before joining Sunderland he had played just an hour of league football.
Speaking recently, former Black Cats man Danny Collins was critical of Le Bris and his handling of the situation, saying: “I think he played, in the last two months prior to coming to Sunderland, one game for Roma. 55, 60 minutes in that game when I looked it up. Then he’s come in, he’s played eight games straight on the bounce. Hasn’t come off. He’s played all 90 minutes.
“Maybe that’s caught up with him a little bit. So that obviously goes back to managing minutes for games for the lads. Again, it’s questions he’s [Le Bris] going to get asked.”
The chances of promotion this season have taken a bit of a hit after back-to-back defeats. A top six finish still looks like the outcome but top two seems hopeful. Expect Roma to keep a close eye on how Sunderland fare, with a lot of money riding on their potential promotion to the Premier League.