Sunderland head coach Regis Le Bris has named his team to face QPR

Régis Le Bris has made two changes to his Sunderland team to face QPR, with Dennis Cirkin stepping up his comeback by returning to the starting XI at left back.

There is a further boost on the bench with Dan Ballard making his return from hamstring injury. Eliezer Mayenda is back after successfully coming through the concussion protocols, and returns to the starting XI ahead of Wilson Isidor ahead of the play-off semi finals in what could be seen as a significant decision by Le Bris.

Le Bris has already confirmed that Dan Ballard will be a second-half substitute in order to boost his match fitness for those play-off games.

“Dan will follow the same plan as Dennis,” Le Bris said.

“We'll probably play the last part of the game, around 30-35 minutes. After that, because the way he trained the last couple of weeks was really good, he showed that he wants to play. For the squad, for the staff, it's really important to have all our players available. He should be available at that level.”

Sunderland XI: Patterson; Hume, Mepham, O’Nien, Cirkin; Neil, Rigg, Jobe; Le Fee, Roberts, Mayenda

Subs: Ballard, Jones, Mayenda, Moore, Isidor, Hjelde, Aleksic, Browne, Watson

Sunderland injury update in full

Le Bris issued an update on Sunderland’s longer-term injuries in his pre-match press conference: “Romaine won't be available this weekend. We don't want to rush the process, but he will train with us from Sunday. So we should have a full squad available for the play-offs, so it's good news for us. It depends on the game against QPR of course, because we still have this 90 minutes to play.

“We decided to rotate the squad in recent weeks, to give minutes and experiences for some players, to refresh and to avoid rushing some processes as well for others. We should be in a really good place with this idea, because I think playing these games with the level required we need a full squad available and it should be the case. We have many options. Different options are available and it's good for the squad, because we don't know the scenario the opponent will have and it's better if we have many options available, which should be the case.

“Aji will be back in full training with Romaine on Sunday, he’s worked really hard to get back.”