The international break looks to have come at a good time for Sunderland after their defeat to Coventry City

Régis Le Bris is hopeful that Sunderland's players will be carefully managed over the international break as a result of the relationships the club have built with national teams.

Sunderland have a raft of young players heading off on international duty, with Dennis Cirkin and Eliezer Mayenda winning their first call ups to their U21 side. It's a source of huge pride both for the club and for the players involved, but it does provide a headache for the Black Cats as they try to manage the workload of their players in what has been a hugely demanding season.

Concerns about fatigue in the squad were magnified by the 3-0 defeat to Coventry City, with Le Bris admitting that his players looked ‘exhausted’ in an alarming display. Those left on Wearside over the break will be on specifically tailored programmes which the club will hope leave them in the best shape possible for the run in.

"We will have many players away with the international teams so it will be quite a small group here," Le Bris said.

"It will be a good opportunity I think to manage individually these players. They can have a specific programme tailored for them.

"It's not easy to manage the players when they go way but Kristjaan and the coaches can have conversations with the national teams and their coaches. From the beginning of the season, more often the conversations have been really positive. This has been really good and so I'm hopeful that this will be the case again."

Cirkin’s involved with England U21s will depend on the severity of a hamstring injury he picked up in the second half of the Coventry City defeat.

What Le Bris said about Sunderland’s disappointing defeat to Coventry City

"It wasn't the best version of Sunderland this afternoon.” Le Bris said.

“To be fair, Coventry were good. They played good football, they were incisive and intense. We were not able to maintain the level to defend properly. Even if our shape was OK, our intensity in duels and second balls were far from the level expected. With the ball we were sloppy, we couldn't keep it against their pressure. It was a bad game.

“It's hard at the moment to find just one reason to explain the behaviour of the team, so I will have to analyse this," Le Bris added.

"I think after the Leeds game our dynamic was broken a little bit, probably our way of thinking about automatic promotion. We played well but didn't get any points. After the Hull game we had a good reaction with two wins and a draw, but today we looked exhausted on the pitch. We didn't look like we had the energy to be competitive."

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