Sunderland boss issues encouraging injury update on Aji Alese and Eliezer Mayenda

Tony Mowbray says he is hopeful that Aji Alese and Eliezer Mayenda could both their first appearances of the campaign before the next international break in October.

Both players are stepping up their recoveries, with Alese last featuring in the second leg of the play-off semi final at Luton Town. Alese suffered a recurrence of the thigh problem that had kept him out of much of Sunderland's schedule in 2023, but the versatile defender is closing on a return.

Mayenda, meanwhile, suffered a hamstring problem in his first training session after making the summer switch from Sochaux.

"They're both on the grass but at this stage neither is back working with the team, they're doing their work on their own," Mowbray said.

"I think in around ten days to two weeks, they should both be back in the team.

"Whether they can get an appearance before the next international break in October, I would hope so. But again, they have both been out for a while and so it wouldn't be right to put any time limits on them, it's important that they feel the progression and build up of their training is right and going to get them to where they need to be.

"They might well want to play 45 minutes in an U21s game first, so it's just a process to go through.

"But yeah, I'm hoping that within the next two weeks that they'll be training with the first team on a regular basis."

Longer-term absentees Jay Matete and Corry Evans are both likely to be sidelined until the festive period.