Tony Mowbray drops Amad hint as he opens up on difficult Sunderland selection call

It was the first time since before the World Cup break that the Manchester United loanee had not started a game, with Mowbray concerned that his heavy workload had seen his outrageously good performance levels dip ever so slightly.

Sunderland's schedule remains arduous, with Bristol City visiting the Stadium of Light on Saturday before away games at Rotherham United and Coventry City to conclude the month.

Mowbray is hopeful that in those fixtures the benefits of Amad's slightly reduced game time (he was substituted in the previous two games to the QPR win) will be clear.

"It was important [to give him a rest], he's not a robot," Mowbray said.

"I felt he needed to re-energise, mentally as well as physically. He's a very robust footballer and up until the last week or so, he'd played just about every minute for us for months.

"I'd brought him off in a couple of games and then he was on the bench Tuesday, and I'm hopeful that spell will be of benefit to him moving forward. Psychologically as much as anything, to push that reset button and show everyone how talented he is.

"The team had a real spurt when he came on the other night, just his ability to pick the right pass and relieve that pressure. He can eliminate their press with that one pass, one bit of skill, and then you're away at their backline. On another day, we could have scored even more in that last fifteen minutes because more often than not, he's picking the right pass.

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"We're hoping that the bigger picture is he benefits from the rest he's had over the last week. You couldn't say he was out of form because he wasn't, but he maybe wasn't quite at those heights where he was scoring practically every game.

"He was still doing a lot for us but I want him to have that hunger that makes him the best player on the pitch pretty much every time."

Sunderland will also assess Alex Pritchard after he made his first start since a calf injury at QPR. Mowbray is confident he will have a big part to play in the game.

"We think he's come through it alright, though we haven't spoken to the medical department yet," Mowbray said.

"He certainly wasn't coming off unhappy the other night, I think he knew that he was about done having missed a lot of football in recent weeks.

"We know how important a player he is for us. It was a tough shift for him the other night with us only playing a two in there, but I knew his understanding of the game would give him a better chance than most.

"We'll analyse Bristol City this afternoon and pick the team from there. We'll see, if he's on the bench he will definitely impact the game and if he starts he will probably come off at some stage. At this stage I haven't picked a team, that will happen after we've looked closely at Bristol City."