Sunderland AFC news: What Tony Mowbray said about injuries, Nazariy Rusyn, strikers and Norwich fixture

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Tony Mowbray’s pre-match press conference ahead of Sunderland’s Championship fixture against Norwich.

The Black Cats are looking to bounce back following three consecutive league defeats, with three more fixtures before another international break.

We’ll have live updates from the Academy of Light as Mowbray speaks to the media.

We’ll start with the Sunderland team news.

Defender Dan Ballard was passed fit for Tuesday’s game against Leicester despite picking up a knock, while Dennis Cirkin returned to the squad and came off the bench following a hamstring injury.

Adil Aouchiche (groin) and Bradley Dack (hamstring) both missed the match at Leicester and are doubts for Saturday’s match against Norwich.

Eliezer Mayenda featured for Sunderland’s under-21s side in a behind-closed-doors friendly against Hibernian on Monday and could feature for the under-21s side again against Tottenham on Friday as he recovers from a hamstring issue.

Mowbray said earlier this week that Aji Alese is still ‘two or three’ weeks away following another minor setback, while Timothee Pembele, Jay Matete and Corry Evans are longer-term injury absentees.

We’ll get a further update from Mowbray this afternoon.

“I think the performance levels have been pretty high. I don’t sit here and think we have to do this or have to do that.

“We have lost the last two games from defending set-plays which has been pretty good for us for a period of time now but it cost us.

“I think the ability to score more goals have cost us. We had 17 shots at Stoke and 13 the other night.

“Generally I think the identity of the team is still strong and think we are more than capable of winning three or four on the bounce.”

“They need game time. Cirkin played in a game the day before and played 45 minutes then played against Leicester.

“It’s a balancing act when people have been out for a long time and then trying to get them fit to play in the Championship.

“Injuries, we have some pretty good players who are on their way back like Dennis the other night.”

“I haven’t studied them much to be honest. I started watching them this morning. They have some good players, I think it’s one win in five.

“They have a different coach now but the club, I know Norwich have a philosophy of how they want to play and what they want to do.

“For me I’m more interested in us. Norwich is one of the teams who will expect to be up there in this league.

“This is just the next game for us and we are more focused on us than on them. Of course we have to be aware of what their strengths and weaknesses are but we are more focused on us than on them.”

“They have come from different countries, some of them are finding it difficult to acclimatise with the intensity with the work that we do. If they were breaking the net in training every day they’d be in the team.

“They are young boys learning their trade. Rusyn is not a young boy, he’s 24, 25 but he’s from Ukraine, struggling with the language a little bit. If I thought they could come in, score goals and help us win football matches they would be in the team.”

“I’m pretty relaxed about where we are. We have three points less than what Burnley had last year at this stage of the season so we shouldn’t be too unhappy. Are we three points off third? So let’s keep going.

“We do break down most games that we play, what was good and what was bad, and I think there has been plenty of good this season.”

That brings us to the end of the broadcast section of the press conference, but Mowbray has also spoken to the written press including our reporter Phil Smith.

We’ll have more from the Sunderland boss and build-up to Saturday’s match over on the SAFC section of the Echo website.