Régis Le Bris issues significant Sunderland injury update and drops big Enzo Le Fée hint
Régis Le Bris has confirmed that Jobe Bellingham will return to the Sunderland squad this weekend.
Bellingham has missed the last two league fixtures after picking up a minor knock in the 1-0 win over West Brom at The Hawthorns. Though the problem was not a significant one, Sunderland opted to give him a period of rest in order to allow him to play a full part in the run-in and play-off campaign.
Le Bris also offered a positive update on Dennis Cirkin, who isn’t yet ready to return to the squad but could feature when Blackburn Rovers travel to the Stadium of Light next week.
Le Bris also dropped a strong hint that Enzo Le Fée is ready to start at Bristol City, though his minutes will be carefully managed over the Easter weekend.
“Jobe will be available, he probably won’t be a starter at Bristol but he will be available,” Le Bris said.
“It was important for him to recover properly. Dennis will hopefully be back on Monday [for Blackburn Rovers], I don’t think he will be a starter but we will see if we can give him a short period of time off the bench. We will see on that one. Leo is [fully] available again. Salis is back. A little bit later we will Dan Ballard back in training.
“Enzo I think is OK now,” Le Bris added.
“We know that he can really help the team because he is a very talented player, and well connected with the team. We didn’t want to rush the process, maybe he could have started against Swansea and the output of the game would have been different, but we want to build gradually and this was the right decision.”
The latest on the rest of Sunderland’s injured players
Le Bris has issued an update on Sunderland’s longer-term injuries last week, confirming that Jayden Danns would not play this season and that Ahmed Abdullahi was unlikely to feature.
Aji Alese is making good progress, though, and could be back to offer additional defensive cover in the play-offs. Niall Huggins could also be back involved for a play-off campaign, though he will of course be unlikely to play a big part given his lengthy spell on the sidelines. Jenson Seelt should be back before the end of the campaign.
