Sunderland are back in action on home turf when they face Bournemouth this weekend

Sunderland are back in Premier League action at the Stadium of Light this Saturday when they welcome Bournemouth.

The Black Cats will look to bounce back from their disappointing performance and defeat at Fulham, but face a side who have made an excellent start to the campaign. Head coaches Régis Le Bris and Andoni Iraola both have some significant absentees and team news concerns - here we bring you up to speed with all the latest from both camps...

The Bournemouth team news ahead of Sunderland trip

Bournemouth suffered a string of injury setbacks over what Andoni Iraola termed 'a bad international' break, though it's possible that they could get at least one of their sidelined forwards back for the trip to the Stadium of Light this weekend.

One winger who will definitely be absent is Ben Gannon-Doak, who signed from Liverpool in the summer. Gannon-Doak suffered a serious hamstring injury in the early stages of Scotland's win over Denmark last week and as of last Friday, the club were assessing whether surgery was required or whether more conservative treatment would be sufficient. The 20-year-old has since undergone surgery and is expected to be out for a number of months.

The Cherries were also without winger Justin Kluivert for the 2-2 draw with West Ham United due to a muscle abductor injury, and it is not yet clear whether he will be back to face Sunderland. At this early stage he is considered a doubt, and so too is the hugely influential former Sunderland loanee Antoine Semenyo.

Semenyo returned to Bournemouth early from his international duties with Ghana as a result of pre-existing ankle issue.

"Antoine is different," Iraola said last week.

"Justin and Ben have muscle injuries and Antoine’s was not something new that happened when he was there [on International duty with Ghana]. He was already dealing with an ankle injury. I cannot tell you if he’s going to play tomorrow or not. We will have to see."

Semenyo did not in the end make the squad and though the issue does not appear to be major, he is an early doubt for this weekend's game. Iraola was boosted last weekend by the availability of midfielder Tyler Adams and experienced defender Adam Smith, who both featured in the draw with West Ham after suffering concussions.

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The Sunderland team news ahead of Bournemouth visit

Sunderland's treatment room is clearing, underlined by the fact that the depth of the squad as it stands led to Chris Rigg being left out of the matchday 20 on Saturday.

Midfielder Habib Diarra will miss this game as he continues his recovery from groin surgery earlier this season. The Senegal international is targeting a return for the clash with Newcastle United next month before representing his country at the Africa Cup of Nations, but Le Bris has made clear that it's still too early to to set an exact comeback date. With a significant injury such as this, Sunderland will take no risks. Aji Alese and Ahmed Abdullahi are also both still recovering from injury and though they are both making progress, they were not yet back in full training as of last week and so will almost certainly remain absent for this one.

The key call for Le Bris will be whether he looks to bring Dennis Cirkin, Romaine Mundle or Leo Hjelde back into the squad. All three have made their comebacks for the U21s over the last couple of weeks, with Cirkin making three appearances and playing 90 minutes last week. Mundle and Hjelde both have just 45 minutes in the 1-0 win over Sporting Lisbon to their name and with availability across the group pretty good right now, it would probably make sense for Le Bris to take a cautious approach and ease them back in over a longer period of time. The U21s have two National League Cup fixtures over the next week and the pair could get more minutes in those games.

Granit Xhaka and Noah Sadiki remain on four yellow cards ahead of the game, one away from a one-match suspension.

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