The Black Cats submitted a 25-man squad to the Premier League, and while there were no real surprises, a number of supposedly senior players missed out and will not be eligible for action until January at the earliest.
Timothee Pembele, Abdoullah Ba, Jay Matete, Joe Anderson and Ian Poveda were all omitted from the squad, meaning they will not be able to feature in Sunderland’s first team in the first half of the season.
They are unlikely to spend much time training with Sunderland’s first-team group, and while attempts to secure them either a permanent exit or a loan move in the summer proved unsuccessful, a couple of avenues remain open.
The vast majority of global transfer windows have now closed, with Qatar set to be the latest country to reach its deadline day later today, but a handful remain open with possibilities for a deal still being examined.
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The Serbian transfer window does not close until later this week, along with the window in Oman. Clubs in Israel, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates can continue to make transfers until later this month.
Sunderland have already agreed to a couple of transfers that went through after the closure of the domestic transfer window, with Nazariy Rusyn and Milan Aleksic having completed moves to the Polish top-flight.
“Maybe one or two opportunities are still possible [for players to leave],” said Black Cats head coach Regis Le Bris. “But after that they will be around the squad.
“So, the current process is still the same. We need 20, 21, 22 players to organise a session. So, after that, for player 23, 24, 25, it will depend on injuries, the way we can manage the load.
“We can have two or three more involved in the process. But after that, you have to train with the second squad.”
There is still the option for Sunderland to loan some of their younger players to non-league clubs, including sides in the National League, as there is no transfer window in operation at that level.