Régis Le Bris spells out Sunderland selection plan for Bristol City and Blackburn Rovers amid fan debate

Régis Le Bris will continue with his rotation policy for the Easter weekend, and hopes that he may be able to give a welcome rest to Dan Neil at some stage.

Le Bris has been making changes to his Sunderland team across recent games with a view to having his squad in peak condition for the play-off campaign next month, but the team captain is one of a handful of players whose workload has remained extensive.

It has been the same for Trai Hume, Chris Mepham and Luke O’Nien but the head coach doesn’t yet think he has the options to take them out of the team. Salis Abdul Samed’s return means that is a possibility for Neil, though Blackburn’s trip to the Stadium of Light on Monday might be the game he does that.

While some fans are concerned at the team’s performances amid the rotation, Le Bris has made clear that the schedule means he will persist this weekend. He is likely to return to a more settled and familiar XI for the final two league games of the campaign.

“I hope we can do that (rest Neil and Hume),” Le Bris said.

“If it is possible, I think it is important to let the players have one game a week because that keeps them in the right rhythm. But then, if it is possible to give them one game rest when you have two games in such a short space of time, then that would be better. The problem we have is that, in different positions, that is not easy. With the centre-backs at the minute, for example, it is really difficult, and it is the same at full-back as well. For Dan, I think it will be possible because now Salis is back and Enzo should be ready to start a game, so we should have enough options to be able to do that this week.

“We are going to have to manage the squad in these next two games, absolutely. We are going to have to manage the minutes of the players with two games in the same weekend.”

Régis Le Bris issues Sunderland injury update

Earlier in his press conference, Le Bris confirmed that Jobe Bellingham would return to the squad on Friday but would likely be named on the bench. That could mean Enzo Le Fée is in line start for the first time since he suffered a hamstring injury in February.

“Jobe will be available, he probably won’t be a starter at Bristol but he will be available,” Le Bris said.

“It was important for him to recover properly. Dennis will hopefully be back on Monday [for Blackburn Rovers], I don’t think he will be a starter but we will see if we can give him a short period of time off the bench. We will see on that one. Leo is [fully] available again. Salis is back. A little bit later we will have Dan Ballard back in training.

“Enzo I think is OK now,” Le Bris added.

“We know that he can really help the team because he is a very talented player, and well connected with the team. We didn’t want to rush the process, maybe he could have started against Swansea and the output of the game would have been different, but we want to build gradually and this was the right decision.”

Your next Sunderland read: Phil Smith: My honest view on the atmosphere at Sunderland games and the big away fan debate