ALAN BROWNE and Romaine Mundle are both facing up to two months on the sidelines after suffering serious injuries in the draw with Coventry City that preceded the international break.
Browne has suffered a fracture to one of the bones in his leg, and while the break is not at the most extreme end of the scale, it will nevertheless keep the midfielder out of action for between six to eight weeks.
Mundle is facing a similar length of lay-off after he suffered a significant hamstring injury in the game with Coventry a fortnight ago, with the winger having begun his recuperation during the international break.
“The two players will probably be out for six to eight weeks,” said Black Cats head coach Regis Le Bris. “Alan has broken a bone in his leg, but you can have a different level of fracture, so it will be six to eight weeks probably. Romaine has damaged his hamstrings, and will be out for roughly the same time.”
The absence of both Browne and Mundle exacerbates the selection problems that Le Bris was already facing ahead of Saturday’s trip to Millwall.
Sunderland already have three players unavailable because of suspension at the weekend, with Trai Hume and Patrick Roberts having picked up their fifth bookings of the season in the Coventry draw and Jobe Bellingham serving the final game of the three-match ban that was imposed as a result of his dismissal in the goalless draw at QPR.
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“We have to manage the situation,” said Le Bris. “As a coach, you would like to have the full squad available all the time, but it doesn’t really work like that, especially in a long league like the Championship with 46 games.
“We were prepared for that, but it’s always unpredictable. You have to expect that suspensions and injuries can occur, and with the quality of the group and the depth of the squad, we can manage many situations.
“We have to change many players – three, four five, I don’t know exactly – but the players that will be coming in have been training with us and are talented players. They know the context, the culture and the game model, they just haven’t played with the team a lot in competitive games.”
In more positive news, Anthony Patterson has resumed full training during the international break and will return in goal at the Den to make his first appearance since October.
Aji Alese is also available again, although given that the centre-half has only made 12 appearances in the last season-and-a-half, Le Bris will have to balance the need for defensive reinforcements against an understandable desire to try to protect the 23-year-old against any further injury setbacks.
“Anthony is back for this weekend,” confirmed Le Bris. “Aji is also fit, he has been training with us through the international break.”
