Sunderland head coach Regis Le Bris has issued a team news update ahead of the trip to Everton

Régis Le Bris says he will make a late decision on his Sunderland XI to face Everton in the third round of the FA Cup as he assesses the availability of a number of players.

After missing the last two games with a minor injury, Wilson Isidor will train on Friday morning with a view to hopefully returning to the squad for the Saturday lunchtime game. Le Bris has said he will look to pick a strong side but made clear that some changes are inevitable.

“He's getting better,” Isidor said.

“He trained this morning with the squad and we'll see if he's available or not. He’s just on the limit and we don't want to take unnecessary risks, so that's it. I think we want to go strong because we respect this competition. And at the same time, we'll have to manage the load of a few players. At the minute, we don't have the full picture because the schedule is so busy that every hour is useful to understand exactly the situation.”

Le Bris is also set to make a late decision on which of Sunderland’s returning players from the Africa Cup of Nations can play a part. Noah Sadiki, Arthur Masuaku, Reinildo and Bertrand Traore are all back on Wearside but the head coach does not expect all of them to be in the squad.

The head coach has no concerns putting them back into competitive action so soon but needs to make a decision on their physical status after training on Friday.

“It's a bit early because they travelled back [but haven't trained yet], so this morning will be really important to assess everyone,” Le Bris said.

They probably won't be available, all of them won't be available, but probably one or two might be. They digest quickly, I think, and this is the quality of those players. It's always that you can win, you're happy, you lose, don't go too deep, because you should have to play again two or three days later. So, they used to play at that level.”

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Régis Le Bris issues Aji Alese and Ahmed Abdullahi update

Le Bris also confirmed that Aji Alese and Ahmed Abdullahi are on the comeback trail after a long spell on the sidelines, but that neither are in contention this weekend.

“They had many re-injuries and we decided to stay really cautious with them,” Le Bris said.

“They trained with the U21s, probably will have game time with them. So, it's in progress.”

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