Mike Dodds issues Sunderland team news update and confirms selection plan for Bristol City visit

Mike Dodds has confirmed that Corry Evans isn’t yet ready to make his Sunderland comeback, but Aji Alese is in contention to return to action when Bristol City visit the Stadium of Light on Saturday afternoon.

Evans has not been included in the last two matchday squads after making his return in the U21 side over the international break, and Dodds has confirmed that he has suffered a minor setback in training. The interim boss expects him to return to full training next week, and so he could be in contention for the trip to West Brom.

Alese, however, is ready to return after playing 90 minutes in an U21 win over Huddersfield Town in midweek. The defender was not in the squad for the 5-1 defeat to Blackburn Rovers on Easter Monday but should return to the bench at least tomorrow.

Dodds said: "Corry had a little bit of a reaction in training, nothing major - so he's back in part-training now but he won't be available this weekend. He'll be back fully training with the squad next weekend, we obviously want to get him back as quickly as we can.

"Aji played 90 minutes during the week for the U21s which was really important for him, psychologically more than anything. That was his first 90 minutes for a very, very long time which puts him in contention for the weekend."

Dodds also defended his decision to change his side from the one which had performed so well against Cardiff City days previous to the Blackburn defeat - but confirmed that he will reshuffle the pack tomorrow. Chris Rigg will be in contention to return to the starting XI after his goal against Blackburn.

"I've been asked that a few times this week,” Dodds said of those decisions.

“Our running stats at Cardiff were the third highest that they've been all season, so they've put a huge amount of effort into that game. I just felt freshening up the wings is something we needed. If I'd won it would have looked like a good decision but obviously it was a terrible performance and so that's going to see those changes highlighted even more. Hindsight can be a wonderful thing, and obviously there are going to be some changes for Saturday."