Following the international break, Sunderland will begin their Championship season against QPR at Loftus Road on Saturday. The Black Cats entered the break after a 5-0 win over Southampton at the Stadium of Light, and the break will have given some of their injured players time to recover. The Black Cats sold long-term injury sufferer Ross Stewart to the Saints on transfer deadline day in early September, but they still have one long-term injury victim in Corry Evans, who will be out for several months.
However, a number of other injured players are nearing a return, and it is feasible that one or two of them will be ready in time for QPR. Wideman Patrick Roberts has returned to training and will be available this weekend, while Aji Alese and summer signing Eliezer Mayenda are nearing full fitness.
Tony Mowbray provides an injury update before each game, and ChronicleLive has compiled the most recent information we have on the players who are now in the Academy of Light’s treatment room.
Patrick Roberts
Roberts was declared out until after the international break after limping out of Sunderland’s win over Rotherham on August 19. “Following a period of rehabilitation, Roberts is expected to return to action following the September international break,” said the club in a statement.
Roberts has missed games against Coventry City and Southampton, but Mowbray claims the wideman has returned to training and will be in the squad for the trip to QPR.
Jenson Seelt
Seelt, the Dutch defender, is no longer on the injured list; rather, he is lacking in match fitness. Seelt injured his ankle in training shortly after arriving on Wearside this summer, and he worsened it 45 minutes into his debut appearance in the club’s pre-season friendly against North Carolina during the club’s tour to the United States.
He has recovered from his injury and has been on the bench for the last two games, against Coventry City and Southampton, so he will need to be eased back into competitive play.
Timothee Pembele
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Paris St-Germain deadline day signing Pembele is out of shape, having played only a few games last season while recovering from a long-term ailment. The defender sustained a cruciate ligament injury in April 2022 while on loan at Bordeaux, which kept him out until February of this year. He appeared in five games for PSG last season, including four starts, but has yet to play a full 90 minutes.
Sunderland confirmed this week in a statement that he is “undergoing a personal maintenance programme alongside the club’s performance team, having returned to action earlier this year following a long-term injury.”
Eliezer Mayenda
Mayenda, 18, joined Sunderland from French club Sochaux at the end of July, but he sustained a hamstring injury in his first training session on Wearside. Mowbray stated ahead of Sunderland’s game against QPR that Mayenda was back on the grass training with the club’s medical staff and could be back in full training in ‘ten days to two weeks’ and could be involved in the club’s Championship before the October international break, which begins after Sunderland’s home game against Middlesbrough on October 7.