West Brom vs Sunderland: Mike Dodds reveals injury latest and discusses team selection for Championship match

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Mike Dodds’ pre-match press conference ahead of Saturday’s Championship match at West Brom.

The Black Cats boss is set to speak to the media at 12:30pm, and we’ll have live updates from the Academy of Light right here.

Stick around and refresh the page for live updates.

We’ll start with the news that Sunderland have confirmed that hummel will take over as the club’s new kit partner from July of this year.

The announcement has been eagerly anticipated ever since the club confirmed that they would be seeking a new agreement following their partnership with Nike and the Just Sport group. Sunderland and hummel have agreed an initial five-year partnership, which the club say is a multi-million pound agreement and one of the biggest commercial deals in their history.

READ MORE HERE

In terms of team news, Corry Evans (below) may be able to return to the squad after over a year out with an ACL injury. The midfielder suffered a minor setback in training after playing for the club’s under-21s side and will hope for some game time before the end of the season.

Dennis Cirkin is also expected to return before the end of the campaign, yet is set to miss this weekend’s fixture. Nazariy Rusyn and Elliot Embleton remain sidelined while Jenson Seelt and Niall Huggins are facing longer absences.

We’ll get a further update from Dodds this afternoon.

Here’s what Dodds had to say after Tuesday’s goalless draw at Leeds when asked about his position.

"I've said it a lot but I understand that if I win games I'll get praise and if I lose it's the polar opposite.

“I think the circumstances to the last time I took over have been completely different and it's taken longer to get them going in the direction we want. With all the games apart from the first half of the Swansea game and the game last Monday, there have been pockets that I really liked. The reality is I will reflect on this period and be better for it, I think the average age of the games I've taken is 22 and I think the most experienced manager could be sat here.. you can only deal with the hand you are dealt.

"I'm really proud of how I've prepared the team but sometimes you need a bit of a help," he added.

"It hasn't gone as well as I'd hoped, of course it hasn't, its something I want to do in the future but I'm not going to chase it. If I keep trying to improve every day, one day someone will give me the opportunity and I'm confident I can do OK at it."

“Everyone is good. We’ve had a good few days. Everyone is where we want them to be.”

“We hope to. He’s back training with the group but not fully training with the group. I think like the other lads who have come back, you don’t want to rush them back.

“The plan is to try and see him before for the end of the season, whether that materialises we’ll find out in the next couple of weeks or so.”

“For Dennis and Aji, knowing they can play 60 or 90 minutes, going into the summer knowing their body is in the right place will be important for them. If there was a huge risk factor we obviously wouldn’t take that risk, and you can see that a little bit with who has come back.

“Patrick and Aji, we have probably gone a bit slower than we would have done earlier in the season. I do think it’s important for a Dennis, or an Aji, to be back playing going into the summer. You them have thee off season and pre-season, 12 weeks until your first competitive game.”

“In an ideal world I’d have a fully-fit Patrick Roberts who can have an influence on the games. Thankfully Chris Rigg has come in and done really well.

“Pat is in a good place,  he’s refocused, we’ve had an honest conversation after the Blackburn game in terms of where I think he’s at. I think it’s important we get him onto the pitch going into the summer. Again it’s the balance of that risk factor. 

“Pat has got to have a big summer, we’ve had that conversation. He’s got to come back really fit, really strong. Patrick Roberts should be the first name on our team sheet, his ability is undoubted. Unfortunately for Pat he will have been at a lot of football clubs where people will have had that conversation. At some point the penny has got to drop for him.”

“I think the whole starting XI would have an argument to start again because, out of possession they executed what I asked of them. I felt in possession there were key moments with the game where we didn’t quite execute a pass.

“I will do my research on the opposition and pick a team I feel is a capable team to win the game. We’ll see for tomorrow.”