Sunderland injury boost confirmed as Régis Le Bris names team to face Derby County

Alan Browne has returned to the Sunderland squad but Régis Le Bris has named an unchanged XI to face Derby County at the Stadium of Light.

Browne has missed the last two games with a minor knee problem but returns to add some very welcome depth to Le Bris’s options from the bench. As expected, Dan Ballard and Eliezer Mayenda remain absent with injuries and are at this stage major doubts for Leeds United’s visit to the Stadium of Light on Friday night.

Browne returns to the bench in place of Harrison Jones, who is in the U21s side facing Lyon at Eppleton this evening. Jewison Bennette has also been named in that team, with Tommy Watson on the first-team bench after getting his first league minutes of the campaign at Watford.

Sunderland XI: Patterson; Hume, Mepham, O’Nien, Cirkin; Neil, Rigg, Jobe; Roberts, Mundle, Isidor

Subs: Moore, Browne, Watson, Poveda, Hjelde, Johnson, Rusyn, Ba, Aleksic