Régis Le Bris confirms possible Sunderland exits and explains absence of seven senior players at Blackpool

Régis Le Bris has confirmed that a group of Sunderland players not involved in Saturday's friendly against Blackpool are unlikely to be in his plans for the upcoming campaign.

Le Bris named a much smaller squad for the 1-0 friendly win at Bloomfield Road, with Luis Hemir, Jewison Bennette and Jay Matete all instead named in the starting XI for the U21 side as they took on Hartlepool United at Victoria Park. The Sunderland head coach says he now wants to work with a smaller group as the opening day of the season nears and confirmed that the trio were free to look for a loan move.

"Yeah, for sure [time to reduce the group]," he said.

"It is now two weeks until we play against Cardiff City, so it is now time to reduce the group and work on the starting XI and the substitutes who will be involved at the start of the season. So that's our goal at the moment and for the other players who can't be involved for the season, it will be interesting for them to find a loan for sure."

Elliot Embleton and Timothee Pembele did not feature in either of Saturday's game but Le Bris confirmed that they will get a chance to impress against Bradford City on Tuesday night.

He said: "We have another game on Tuesday [at Bradford] so they will have time to play there."

Le Bris also confirmed that Pierre Ekwah and Leo Hjelde were missing with minor injuries and that Aji Alese had been replaced at half time with a niggle. Le Bris said his substitution was more about avoiding risk than any major issue - at least that's the hope at this stage.

"Pierre is still struggling with a pain in his back, while Leo received a hit on his calf on during the training session yesterday so we decided not to take any risks with him," Le Bris said.

"With Aji, he felt a pain in his quadriceps so again, we didn't take a risk and replaced him at half time."