Dennis Cirkin could have a huge opportunity to show he has a long-term future at Sunderland after Reinildo was ruled out for a month with a knee injury.
Sunderland are hopeful that Reinildo will be back in time to face Newcastle United next month but even if he is, the Black Cats will be without the influential left back for four games. While Régis Le Bris has the option to move Trai Hume to left back, a role he has played regularly in the past, Cirkin pressed his claims for more Premier League football with a good performance against Oxford United last week.
Cirkin is out of contract this summer, and said he was relaxed the situation and happy to see how the rest of the season plays out. Le Bris said he sees the 23-year-old as a definite option moving forward into the final months of the campaign, and challenged him to show his quality over an extended period.
“Dennis is in a good place,” Le Bris said.
“The objective of the second part of the season was to find consistency on the pitch and in the training ground. We are more or less in this situation now. He’s now ready to be competitive in the Premier League, which is good. After that, we have 12 games ahead and we’ll see how it goes. It’s a good option for us now. We didn’t test his consistency across 10 or 15 games because he was behind Rei, but we’ll see.”
Left back is one of Le Bris’s two big dilemmas ahead of Fulham’s visit to the Stadium of Light on Sunday afternoon, with Granit Xhaka’s return from an ankle injury also handing him a very welcome headache in the middle of the pitch. Some have wondered whether Le Bris might move Habib Diarra out to the right in order to get all four of his key central midfielders into the side, but the head coach hinted on Friday that this is unlikely at least from the start of games.
“It’s still an option,” Le Bris said.
“We’ll see, but I like Habib in the middle. He’s powerful, he’s intense. He needs to develop many things because he needs experience in the Premier League for sure, but his physicality and ambition and intensity are very important in the middle.”
Fulham injury update ahead of Sunderland clash
Fulham boss Marco Silva has confirmed that his side are set to be without Samuel Chukwueze for their trip to the Stadium of Light to face Sunderland in the Premier League this weekend.
Speaking in a pre-match press conference on Friday afternoon, Silva confirmed that the Nigeria international sustained a minor calf issue during a recent defeat against Manchester City, and while he has returned to training, he will not be risked on Sunday afternoon.
Silva also stated that both Sasa Lukic and Tom Cairney are now back in training too, although it is unclear as to whether either will make Fulham’s matchday squad on Wearside. The head coach said: “Sasa Lukic and Tom Cairney are back training. For one of them, it will be too soon. Samuel Chukwueze is going to be out, he picked up a knock to his calf after the Manchester City game.”
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