Sunderland head coach Régis Le Bris has named his team to face Norwich City

Régis Le Bris has made four changes to his Sunderland side to face Norwich City on Tuesday night.

Tommy Watson is handed his first start since agreeing a move to Brighton & Hove Albion, with the 19-year-old set to replace Patrick Roberts on the right flank. Milan Aleksic is handed a rare start on the left wing in the absence of Romaine Mundle.

Jobe Bellingham is absent with what is believed to be a minor injury, with Sunderland taking no risks ahead of the play-off campaign. That sees Alan Browne move back into midfield with Leo Hjelde slotting in at left back.

Eliezer Mayenda replaces Wilson Isidor up front, with the striker dropping to the bench. Ahead of Tuesday night’s clash Le Bris made clear that he would use Watson despite his imminent move to the South Coast.

“Tommy is available and connected with the team,” Le Bris said.

“He is a Sunderland player, and is motivated to be promoted at the end of the season. I have no worried over him and, for the next stage of the season, Tommy will be a Sunderland player to the end and I am really confident about using him as a left winger, a right winger or even in other positions until the end of the season.”

Sunderland XI: Patterson, Hume, Mepham, O’Nien, Hjelde; Neil, Browne, Rigg; Watson, Aleksic, Mayenda

Subs: Moore, Lavery, Middlemas, Jones, Le Fee, Roberts, Anderson, Isidor, Bainbridge

Régis Le Bris’s pre-match Sunderland injury update

Le Bris issued a full injury update ahead of Sunderland’s trip to Norwich City, with the Black Cats facing an anxious wait on Romaine Mundle but moving closer to having Salis Abdul Samed back in contention for selection.

“With Romaine, it is a hamstring injury, but we don’t know the timeline yet,” he said.

“We need more advice from specialists, so we will have to wait a little bit. Could it be the end of his season? Yes, it’s possible. We will have to make a decision over the situation, but it is not up us really because we need some specific advice to be able to make this decision.

"So Leo is available now [to start], we have Enzo but just for a short part of the game for now.” Le Bris added.

“Salis [Abdul Samed] trained with us this morning so he should be available for the Swansea game. Step by step, we get two or three players back but of course we have now lost Romaine. If it's possible to manage the core of the group to play one, maybe one and a half games a week this is better but of course it's not always possible. With Dan and Dennis, I think they will probably need two weeks more. With Ian, I'm not sure. Maybe he will be able to return in early May, but we'll see."