Sunderland boss discusses Luis Hemir and his surprise inclusion in the U21 side this week

Tony Mowbray says Sunderland are working to improve Luis Hemir's match fitness after his surprise inclusion in the club's U21 side on Monday night.

Mowbray had opted to play Bradley Dack up front at Preston North End last weekend but with no other senior striker currently available, there was an inherent risk in opting to play Hemir at Eppleton on Monday night.

The 20-year-old played an hour in the 2-0 win over Norwich City, with Ellis Taylor scoring a brace.

While the decision to play Dack against Preston was primarily a tactical one, with Mowbray reasoning that the challenge of playing up against three powerful centre halves would not have suited Hemir and therefore the team, the head coach has also spoken at length since the former Benfica youngster's arrival about the need to improve his base fitness levels.

Hemir played a full part in pre season but played very little football in the last campaign, particularly in the second half as it became clear that he would moving clubs in the summer window.

"I think the model of the club is if you're a young player who doesn't play on the Saturday, you're going to play [on the Monday]." Mowbray said.

"As long as it's not a six-hour trip down south somewhere, when it could become counterproductive. Hemir has to play, because we need his aerobic capacity to improve hugely.

"The best way to do that is with minutes, because it'll just feel like punishment if all we're doing is running him up and down from box to box. He needs to play football and get football fit for us, I think. So the gamble was to get as much time in that game as we felt was pertinent without putting him at too much risk.

"That's the conundrum we've got at the moment, but we felt it was best to get him playing football as much as we could."

Chris Rigg will be absent from the squad on Saturday as he goes through the concussion protocols after suffering a clash of heads in that U21s win over Norwich City.