What Tony Mowbray said about Ellis Simms' injury, Sunderland team news and Blackburn Rovers return

How was your weekend?

Sunderland got back to winning ways after coming from behind to beat Wigan on Saturday, with Tony Mowbray’s side now preparing to face Blackburn Rovers tomorrow.

Mowbray is set to hold his pre-match press conference at 9:30am today, and we’ll have live updates from the Academy of Light.

Stick around and refresh the page for live updates.

Dennis Cirkin spoke to the media following Sunderland’s win over Wigan.

You can read the full interview here.

In terms of team news, Sunderland will still be missing several key players when they face Blackburn.

Striker Ellis Simms is making progress after missing five successive matches with a toe injury.

When asked about Simms ahead of Saturday’s win over Wigan, Black Cats boss Tony Mowbray said: “He’s been on the treadmills that get you running while taking your weight out of it, and he felt fine doing that.

“It’ll be probably around a week of steadily increasing it and then if he’s still OK, you can start to get him involved with some of the team training drills.

“I would suggest that it will probably will still be a while.

“We have to go through the processes with Ellis, he’s an Everton player and they will of course be part of the conversations as well.”

Ross Stewart and Dan Ballard also remain unavailable, with both likely to be back training just before the World Cup break. Mowbray may want to give them that three-week period to get fully up to speed, though.

Sunderland captain Corry Evans will be available to face his former club Blackburn after missing the Wigan match due to a suspension for picking up five yellow cards.

Jack Clarke and Luke O’Nien are also just one booking away from a one-match suspension.

“I think we got the rewards of our efforts.

“It was interesting talking to their manager after the game and I was saying it was trend teams slowing it down and taking time over throw-ins, goal kicks.

“It was wrong probably to say it but injuries, goalkeepers getting cramp and they were just laughing saying ‘don’t know what you’re talking about.’

“I thought we persevered at it and tried to quicken it up when we had the capability to do it.

“The second goal was through a quick free-kick, Luke gave it to Pritchard who whipped a great ball in and Dennis got on the end of it. We got our rewards for our efforts in the end.”

“He isn’t too far away from being fit to be honest.

“He’s been on the training pitch now, he hasn’t joined in with the team but I’m watching him and he’s going box to box, little side foots, bouncing the ball off boards, twisting, turning.

“He’s opening his legs up, striding out and kicking footballs which is telling me he’s getting closer and closer.

“In the next few games fingers crossed he’s on the bench and he won’t be that far away.”

“When they both got injured I talked about trying to find a way to score and keep winning games

“We had a spell where we scored three at Reading and two at Watford and then had a few home games when we couldn’t score a goal.

“The narrative of the questioning and story is that we can’t score without strikers, and yet we have to find a way and we can score without strikers.

“It’s different types of goals and I thought the first goal against Wigan was a really good goal. We created an overload, switched the play and Dennis got past Pritchard, cut it back and we scored.

“I think we can score them types of goals and score individual goals, Patrick Roberts has done that a few times with his individual talent.

“They all have to step up and hopefully in the next few weeks the strikers return and we have different options for different games.”

“I had five and a half years there at Blackburn and it was a really important period in my career.

“It was a different type of job and got there with them second bottom of the Championship with 15 games to go, late February in 2017. I think we lost three of the last 15 games and yet went down on the last day of the season at Brentford.

“We bounced straight back and it was really important for that football club to bounce back. Sunderland found how difficult it is in League One. it’s very, very difficult.

“You look at the league now this year, Sheffield Wednesday, Derby, Ipswich. There are a lot of teams desperate to get out and thankfully for Blackburn we got out at the first time of asking.

“I think it was just trying to build the club really, trying to put some assets into the club, recruit well and build it without getting carried away.

“In my final year we threatened the play-offs. We were second in the league in the middle of February. Brereton-Diaz got injured and missed 12 games and we stopped scoring to win games. We fell away and finished eighth.

“My contract expired and I left, spend some time at home and here I am

“Good memories, wonderful club. Obviously the history of that club they won the league Premier League 94/95 with Shearer and Sutton.

“You go back to your old clubs and they are games, football is an emotional sport.”

“They are in the top six.

“They are more than capable of having a good season, as they had a good season last season.

“Brereton-Diaz is really important for them and scored the majority of their goals. Last season he scored 21 before Christmas and then picked up an injury in February and missed 12 matches at a crucial period last season.

“They have a lot of good talented young players coming through.

“A few that were training with us over time he’s given debuts to, young Wharton who plays in midfield. Young Ash Phillips playing centre-half at 17 for them which is fantastic for him and the club.

“It’s not because of me but the work in the academy I suppose, but when I arrived there was a team of 34, 35, 36-year-olds there really. It was a very ageing squad

“I look at their team as a very young team, it was the second youngest team in the Championship last year on average over the 46 games.

“They have some really talented individuals.”

“He’s been very consistent. I think he understands the game, has a good voice and drives the players in front of him.

“There were some good headers the other day and we spoke about the lack of physicality in the team with the type of players we’ve got from set-plays.

“Dany Batth has really stood up and I think Aji needs mentioning as well as a lad who was on the fringes two months ago. Really impressive and a good strong mentality.

“We spoke about Cirkin after the game. An amazing kid really who is desperate to do well and make the most out of his football career and is doing very well.

“I think the likes of Luke O’Nien and Goochy have been around the club a long time. They play with the emotion which the support base see and expect every week.

“They set the example of what’s required to play for this club really. They are full of heart and desire and determination.”