Mike Dodds explains his Sunderland selection stance in Leicester City team news update

Mike Dodds says he will freshen up his Sunderland side on Tuesday night but will resist the urge to make wholesale changes in a bid to turn round his side's ailing form.

Sunderland face the league leaders having lost four Championship games on the bounce, and with Dodds wary of the toll three tough fixtures in a week will take on his players. While making clear that there will be some changes, he also said it was important to try and get a level of consistency through the team for what will be another challenging fixture.

Dan Ballard's return to the starting XI is certain after he served his two-game suspension, with Dodds believing the defender will be ready to go after a short break. Dodds is expected to name an unchanged squad on Tuesday night, with Corry Evans and Bradley Dack set to step up their respective recoveries in an U21 fixture over the next week.

"Yeah, in this game and the next game we'll have to utilise the squad," Dodds said.

"It's a fine balance between freshening certain areas of the pitch up and trying to have a level of consistency because we want to try and get into a flow and rhythm of how we want to work. So it's just trying to find that balance between freshening things up so that we can be right at it in terms of how we want to set up, but also making sure that we're not clunky and disjointed in what we're trying to do.

"The next couple of games there'll be changes, we'll see how tomorrow night goes and then on to Saturday where I'm sure there'll be one or tweaks again. We've got Dan Ballard back which is a huge boost but in terms of injuries it's as we were and it's probably a few weeks away from that changing."

Dodds says Ballard's form and recent absence had underlined his importance to the team but also his status as one of the best central defenders currently playing in the Championship.

“If you look at the first game that I took [against Swansea City], it was glaringly obvious straightaway how important Dan was to us," he said.

"It’s been a big blow to lose him, but hopefully we’ve made the most of it. During international breaks, Dan goes away with his country, and he’s robust and plays a lot of games for us and trains every day. When he got the suspension, we gave him a few days to mentally refresh himself, and in the last seven to ten days, since he’s come back, he’s been bouncy and bubbly, and it’s almost like signing a new player.

"I’m really looking forward to him being back in the squad and the team, and what I think he has done in his absence is show just how important he is to us. I said the last time I took the team that I felt he was one of the best defenders in the league, and I think not having him in the team has just cemented that statement."