Sunderland head coach Régis Le Bris has issued a team news update ahead of Liverpool’s visit to the Stadium of Light
Noah Sadiki is expected to be fit to face Liverpool on Wednesday night but Régis Le Bris has confirmed that Bertrand Traoré is facing at least another fortnight on the sidelines.
Sadiki emerged as an injury concern in the second half of the 3-0 defeat to Arsenal, substituted as a precaution after suffering some muscle discomfort. Le Bris confirmed that the midfielder is ‘good’, however, and so should be fit to start.
Granit Xhaka and Traoré are both still absent for the game however, and Le Bris admits he isn’t expecting them back in the near future. The pair could miss the rest of the month with their respective ankle and knee injuries. Traoré has currently been sidelined for around a month, with the initial club diagnosis hopeful that he’d be sidelined for four to six weeks.
“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.”
Despite Traoré’s ongoing absence, Le Bris said he had no frustrations with the manner of the player’s injury sustained at the Africa Cup of Nations.
“Hard to say,” Le Bris said.
“Because the player tried for his country. And as a player at that level, you are often on the edge.You are never pain-free. You always have something somewhere. And it's not easy to assess a new injury.If you have experienced the same one before, you might say, OK, here I can reach the limit. But for this one, he thought it was possible, but it wasn't.”
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Régis Le Bris on Liverpool clash
“I think they are getting better and they are strong,” Le Bris said.
“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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