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Sunderland’s clash with Liverpool at the Stadium of Light is shaping up as one of the standout fixtures this match week, with the Black Cats still unbeaten at home in the Premier League.
While Arne Slot’s Liverpool arrive under pressure to steady their form and push back towards the Champions League places, Sunderland are looking to turn an impressive campaign into potential European qualification with a result against top‑level opposition. The atmosphere is expected to be fierce, and Le Bris knows his selection hand will be influenced heavily by injuries to key leaders in his squad.
Bertrand Traore remains one of Sunderland’s big absentees, having suffered a knee injury at the Africa Cup of Nations that has kept the influential forward sidelined for several weeks. Le Bris has previously called his captain a “huge loss”, stressing how much Sunderland miss his experience and creativity in the final third.
In midfield, Granit Xhaka is also set to miss out, with Le Bris confirming the Swiss international is still in the rehab phase from an ankle problem and remains at least a couple of weeks away from featuring.
Now speaking in his pre-game press conference, the Frenchman said on the pair as quoted by the Sunderland Echo:
“He’s in the same dynamic, similar to Granit – almost three weeks, something like that,” Le Bris said. “So it’s always symptom-driven, but they are both in a good place. So hopefully we’ll have good news in a few weeks. Bertrand suffered an important knee injury and played with his national team in the second half, I think.
“I don’t remember the opponent and when he came back here in Sunderland, the diagnosis was that you need to rest and you need to take care of your knee if you want to have a stable knee for the end of the season and for his career as well. So we didn’t rush the process and we took care of him just to make sure that he’s ready to play.”
On Liverpool, Le Bris said:
“I think they are getting better and they are strong. They have a few injuries, but their manager is really good. They are Liverpool and it’s a must-win for them once again, so it will be a tough challenge. So it’s an exciting challenge for us, but a tough one.”
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