Sunderland will be hoping to avoid any Christmas hangovers when they take on fellow play-off contenders Blackburn Rovers on Boxing Day.
After the impressive 2-1 win over Norwich City last weekend, Sunderland maintained their position in the upper regions of the Championship table.
Meanwhile, their next opponents, Blackburn, lost pace in the play-offs after losing 1-0 away at Millwall, but that was the Lancashire side’s first defeat in seven games.
Regis Le Bris’ men will need to be at their best to keep Sunderland on track for promotion, but with the form they’re in, we wouldn’t doubt them.
Sunderland injury news ahead of Blackburn Rovers fixture
Sunderland have no fresh injury concerns post-Norwich, so it’s the longer-term absences of Romaine Mundle, Alan Browne, and Niall Huggins to worry about.
Meanwhile, we know Tommy Watson faces two months on the sidelines, and the young winger won’t return until early to mid-February.
Ian Poveda and Jenson Seelt are back in training, though, with the former even making the bench for the win over Norwich.
Then on Christmas Eve, Le Bris revealed that Dan Ballard will miss the Blackburn Rovers game with an injury sustained against Norwich. When he remains remains to be seen.
We can expect Salis Abdul Samed to return to training this week, too, but he won’t be up to speed in time for the trip to Ewood Park.
Trai Hume or Luke O’Nien: Who gets the start for the Blackburn game?
While Wilson Isidor still hasn’t found his goalscoring boots, Regis Le Bris has backed the striker to get a goal soon, and we cannot see him dropping the Frenchman for this one.
Before Ballard’s injury, Le Bris had a bit of a decision to make with Luke O’Nien and whether to start him at left-back for Dennis Cirkin who’s looked shaky since returning from injury.
But Ballard absence makes the selection process a bit easier with O’Nien no doubt starting in place of the injured former Arsenal man.
The rest of the lineup is close to untouchable at the moment, and while ever he can, Le Bris will be keen to limit the number of changes he makes to his starting XI.
Here’s how we think Sunderland will line up against Blackburn…
Patterson (GK)
Cirkin
O’Nien
Mepham
Hume
Bellingham
Neil
Mayenda
Rigg
Roberts
Isidor