Régis Le Bris confirms major double Sunderland injury setback ahead of Millwall test

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Sunderland return to Championship action at Millwall on Saturday afternoon

Régis Le Bris has confirmed that Alan Browne and Romaine Mundle are both potentially facing a spell of around six to eight weeks on the sidelines.

Both players were injured in the same passage of play during the 2-2 draw with Coventry City before the international break. Mundle suffered a hamstring injury, while Browne has suffered a fracture in his leg. While the exact length of their absence is at this stage unknown, Le Bris has confirmed that he is expecting to be without the players for around six to eight weeks.

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That means it is possible that neither could feature at any stage of the busy festive schedule. It leaves Le Bris with a number of selection headaches for the trip to Millwall this weekend, as Trai Hume, Patrick Roberts and Jobe Bellingham are all suspended.

There are two significant boosts for Le Bris, however, with Anthony Patterson and Aji Alese both fit to return to the squad. The Sunderland head coach also confirmed that both Adil Aouchiche and Abdoullah Ba are in consideration for selection.

Le Bris said he was confident he could field a team capable of producing a strong performance at Millwall: “Alan and Romaine will probably be out for six to eight weeks. Alan has broken a bone in his leg, but you can have a different level of fracture, so it will be six to eight weeks probably. Romaine has damaged his hamstring, and will be out for roughly the same time.”

“We have to manage the situation.” he added.

“As a coach, you would like to have the full squad available all the time, but it doesn’t really work like that, especially in a long league like the Championship with 46 games.

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“We were prepared for that, but it’s always unpredictable. You have to expect that suspensions and injuries can occur, and with the quality of the group and the depth of the squad, we can manage many situations.

“We have to change many players – three, four five, I don’t know exactly – but the players that will be coming in have been training with us and are talented players. They know the context, the culture and the game model, they just haven’t played with the team a lot in competitive games.”

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