Michael Beale drops Sunderland selection hint after significant injury update ahead of Middlesbrough clash

Michael Beale is thrilled to have welcomed Patrick Roberts back to action this week but has warned the winger that he faces a fight to displace Abdoullah Ba from the starting XI.

Roberts has been absent with a calf problem since the 1-1 draw at Rotherham United just before the turn of the year, and has returned to training this week ahead of schedule. He'll be on the squad for the trip to Middlesbrough providing he comes through training on Saturday, but Abdoullah Ba's excellent display against Stoke City looks likely to win him another start.

“Paddy’s got a lot of experience," Beale said.

"He’s won leagues and played in big games in Europe and things like that. As a young player, a lot was thrust on Paddy. He’s been a loss because I think we lost our balance. When I first came in, to lose Niall in the first game and then to lose Paddy in the second game, I don’t think people realise how big an impact that had on us. If you think of our flying full-backs and our wide players that come in, we’re a team that if we didn’t get you on the left, we’d try to get you on the right and that would open up space in the middle. All of a sudden, we’ve lost a lot of balance in our team.

“Abdoullah did a great job at the weekend, but it’s different to the style. He goes more straight, and Pritch was a completely different player - we had to allow him to come in off the line. We were disorientated a bit, at the same time as changing the coach.

“Paddy coming back is great, but he’s got a fight on because Abdoullah looks in a really good place at this moment in time. Romaine comes into that as well, so with Jack, I think we’ve got four really good players in the wide areas who can really contribute. They’ll need to, and then if they’re not dribbling their way in, it’s important that we hit crosses from our full-backs too."

beale also said he was confident that he had enough options in central midfield for the rst of the campaign, despite many supporters wanting the club to recruit specialist cover for Corry Evans. Dan Neil played as the deepest midfielder against Stoke and impressed, but Beale said he would rotate his options into that role.

“It depends on the game and how we want to set up our press," Beale said.

"Last week, I thought Dan did a really good job there. I was a bit reluctant to let Nectar go out at the start of the window because he’s played a lot of football there, not just at centre-half. Elliot Embleton has been back in training this week – he’s been out a long time – and he’s another one that goes into that mix. I want them to be hybrid midfielders. I see all three of them more as number eights, so they have to share the workload.

"Within games, then possibly between Dan and Pierre, they’re going to have to share the load and rotate naturally. I thought Dan did a great job for us last week because he was almost the spare player as a number six and he did well with that. There’ll be different games where we tweak things, and there’s Adil Aouchiche as well, whose natural position would be to play in that eight or ten role. "It’s also Abdoullah Ba’s preferred position to play as an eight, and Callum Styles certainly gives us another option too. We’re not as light in there as some people think.”