Régis Le Bris has confirmed that he will be without a number of key players as Sunderland begin a busy week on the road.
The Black Cats face Bournemouth, Leeds United and one of Port Vale or Bristol City in an eight-day period, and will do so without Nordi Mukiele and Brian Brobbey. The duo picked up calf and groin injuries respectively in the 3-1 defeat to Fulham last week and while they are not serious injuries, they are set to miss a number of fixtures.
Like Reinildo, Sunderland are hopeful they will be back to face Newcastle United next month but that will depend on a successful recovery. Dennis Cirkin is also set to miss the upcoming run of fixtures as he recovers from a minor hamstring issue.
“So with Nordi and Brian, it will be a bit shorter,” Le Bris said.
“It will be between two and four weeks, depending on how they respond to the treatments and the rehab. Dennis and Rei are getting better, we miss them but they are getting better. The timeline should be shorter for Dennis, maybe around ten days, but again it will depend on the end of the process.”
Romaine Mundle and Jocelin Ta Bi could be facing longer absences, however, as the club whether the pair need surgery on respective hamstring and ankle issues.
Ta Bi arrived at the club with an ankle issue and Le Bris feels he has been really ‘unlucky’ in picking up the knock against Fulham last week. The pair will be facing lengthy absences if surgery is deemed to be the best option.
“It might be a difficult injury for Romaine,” Le Bris said.
“He might be out for a few weeks, maybe a month, maybe more. We still have some assessments to make but we’ll have a clearer picture soon. It’s still early to say if it’s exactly the same injury he’s had before, but the early indications are it is not positive.
“Jocelin might be in the same position as Romaine for a different injury, he might need surgery. It’s still a bit early but a few weeks, month… [maybe more]. It was really unlucky because it was a small kick, but really precise on his weakest point.
“Totally unlucky, to be fair. Yes, but he’s well-connected with his teammates, so I’m not too worried, to be fair. He’s a bit shy, like a new player, I believe, but already well-connected with his teammates. He speaks a bit of English now, and his French is very good, so in the dressing room it’s easy to manage connections with his teammates.”
The big positive for Sunderland is that Bertrand Traoré resumed training as planned this week, and so could be involved at Bournemouth: “Bertrand is back in full training, so that’s good news for us.”
The early Bournemouth injury news
Bournemouth and head coach Andoni Iraola are sweating over a potential hamstring injury to influential midfielder Lewis Cook, who missed the 0-0 draw with West Ham last weekend.
“Yesterday he felt something training,” Iraola said.
“Still, we haven’t assessed him properly. We haven’t done the MRI, but it doesn’t look big, but I think there has to be something there. I think it’s in the hamstring, and that’s the reason he was out today. We will have to wait for the MRI and see if it’s something small, but I think there is an injury there.”
Wingers Justin Kluivert and Ben Gannon-Doak are long-term injury absentees.
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