Phil Smith Sunderland news and injury update

Sunderland Echo

Phil brings Sunderland fans up to speed with all the latest news ahead of the Championship's return this weekend

Transcript

00:00Hi everyone, Phil here. It feels like it's been a little while since Elan Meslier's error

00:15and I'd last eaten on the whistle. I thought I would just do a little update for you because

00:19I've been down to see Regis Lebris at the Academy of Light this afternoon and because

00:23it's been so long since the Leeds game and the game's not till Sunday, it was a bit more

00:28news than we might normally get at your standard press conference, so I just thought I'd talk

00:31you through it really in case it was something people were interested in and wanted to watch

00:34and listen to. If you think it's something that you'd enjoy in future and you'd like

00:38me to do again, just leave a message in the comments, it's always really useful to get

00:41your feedback. Similarly, if you think it's rubbish and I'm wasting my time and you don't

00:46want any more of it, then just leave a comment below the line and I'll take that on board

00:50for future. So I think the big thing that everyone was looking to from this press conference

00:54was obviously the team news. Sunderland have had quite a thin squad pretty much since the

00:59start of the season actually. I think the hope was that there would be a bit more depth

01:02moving into this busy block of six fixtures. Bit of a mixed update on that front. Dan Ballard

01:08and Elisa Mienda, it sounds as if aren't going to be available for Saturday. We hope that

01:13Ballard recovers from his ankle problem, Mienda from a minor muscle issue. We hope that it

01:17would be fit for Saturday and they'd be back in a squad. I don't think we necessarily thought

01:20either of those players were going to push into the starting XI straight away. I don't

01:23think there's any need for a big overhaul as it is. I think we hoped at least Mienda

01:27would be on the bench to have something a bit different in the final sections of the

01:30game. Doesn't look like that's going to be the case, but Labreze was pretty upbeat about

01:35them. He said they were very, very close to returning. We expect to see them both definitely

01:40next Saturday at home to Oxford and potentially on Wednesday night when Sunderland travel

01:43to Luton. That would obviously be a big boost and the positive does mean that Labreze is

01:48getting some genuine options to add to his depth in the weeks ahead. So kind of a bit

01:52of a mixed update on those two. The big change obviously from the Leeds game is that Aaron

01:57Connolly was on the bench for that game, but he was never realistically going to come off

02:00the bench. He's now very much an option. Labreze spoke about him a lot today, how impressed

02:05he'd been with his performances and training, how fit he thinks he is. Connolly has played

02:08two under-21s games over the international break. He scored and played 45 minutes in

02:13the first. He scored a brace and played 70 minutes in the second. It's basically gone

02:18perfectly to plan over the international break and he's ready to go and he is definitely

02:22an option for Labreze on Sunday against his former club. Kind of perfect timing and I

02:26expect we'll probably see him debut. If you want my guess, I think he'll come off the

02:30bench. I think Labreze might name an unchanged team on Sunday. Not anything that he said

02:40specifically. I've just got the vibe from speaking to him about Connolly and about the

02:44team generally that I think he'll, especially with three games in six days, he'll phase

02:48Connolly in. I think, to be fair, Isto deserves to stay in the team he's played. He's made

02:53three starts up front and he's scored in two of those games. Didn't score against Leeds

02:57but I don't think you put in a poor performance and a lot of the time in that game he was

03:00quite isolated. So I think he absolutely deserves his chance and Connolly, it'll be up to him

03:04to make an impression off the bench. But it'll be nice, I think, for Labreze to have a genuine

03:08bit of a game-changer coming off the bench because I think that's, with Perveda's injury

03:11issues, I think that's something that's something they've really missed so far this season.

03:14So that's a positive. The big negative really is Salees Abdul-Samad, a player we're all

03:19desperate to see because of his pedigree and because he'll bring something completely different

03:22to the squad. Labreze did confirm that he's not really close to his debut, he's not back

03:26in full training. It sounds like it's probably going to be after the November international

03:30break when he returns. I asked him because a lot of people had asked me, quite rightly

03:36so, what was going on. Really strange to sign a loan player who's going to be unavailable

03:39for such a long period of time. Someone had initially thought he would be back, he would

03:43be fit pretty soon after signing. When he arrived, it became clear that it was going

03:48to take a little bit longer but that he then was very close to full fitness when he suffered

03:52a recurrence of the injury. So essentially he's had a new injury while he's been here

03:57which is why it's taken him so long. Sunderland are now at the point where they're being really

04:01cautious with him because their big fear is that if he suffers another recurrence, it

04:05could potentially, by the signs of it, take out a huge chunk of the season and we might

04:08not see much of him at all. So I was frustrated at the moment, Sunderland are taking the view

04:12that if they proceed carefully for the next few weeks, manage his training workload really

04:15carefully and bring him in gradually, then it could still potentially have a big impact

04:19over 25-30 games and what they don't want to do is risk losing him for a big chunk of

04:26the season and then potentially only have him for a small period. Really frustrating

04:30and I can understand the frustrations with essentially signing an injured player. The

04:35only kind of thing I would say that we can take some hope from is that this was a little

04:39bit similar to what happened with Edouard Michoud. If you think about it, Michoud didn't

04:43really feature in the team until after the winter break because of the World Cup that

04:46year and he still played 20-odd games and had a really big part in pushing Sunderland

04:50to the play-offs. Hopefully Sam Ed can do the same but at the moment it definitely leaves

04:55Sunderland a little bit light. So that was for sure a big frustration. The other interesting

05:00thing talking with Rajeece about at the press conference was the appointment of Pedro Ribeiro,

05:07his new assistant head coach. Really interesting that LaBreeze basically said he interviewed

05:11about I think it was about 10 candidates for the job, none of whom he had any previous

05:15working experience with. I think that really goes to show, tells you a lot about LaBreeze

05:20actually how open-minded he is, how inquisitive he is, but also how quite single-minded he

05:25is. He wasn't bothered about having any of his own staff here, how comfortable in his

05:28own skin he is. Basically cited Ribeiro's top flight experience, his elite experience

05:34if you haven't worked with clubs like Porto, is something that he thinks he can bring a

05:37lot to the table from that. He also said his primary role is basically on the defensive

05:41side of the game, so that's really interesting. That's basically where his day-to-day responsibilities

05:45are going to be on the training ground, so it's going to be really interesting to see

05:48how that takes shape over the next coming weeks and months. So that's pretty much all

05:54your main headlines. All of the stuff I've mentioned I will be writing pieces on over

05:58the next couple of days, so you can just keep an eye on The Echo, keep an eye on my Twitter,

06:03I'll be posting all the links out and stuff. And yeah, hopefully you'll get a good overview

06:08from all of that. Like I say, let me know if you'd like me to do these kind of things

06:11more in the future, or if you're not really bothered, and I'll take that on board. We're

06:16always looking to try and do some different stuff with our video output, and really grateful

06:20for all the support for On The Whistle this year. I'll obviously be back for On The Whistle

06:24after the whole game, so I'll see you then, fingers crossed, and we'll have three more

06:27points in the bag. Cheers!

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