Confirmed: Sunderland AFC face double player issue ahead of Coventry | OneFootball

Regis Le Bris has confirmed that two key players will likely be out for the first leg of the play-off semi-final first leg on Friday.

Regis Le Bris has confirmed that Sunderland AFC will likely be without Romaine Mundle and Aji Alese for the first leg of their Championship play-off semi-final tie against Coventry City.

The Black Cats will travel to the CBS Arena wanting to avoid defeat and go into the home second leg at the Stadium of Light with momentum, after a poor end to the season which has seen them draw one and lose five of their final six games.

Much of their poor run has coincided with the injuries of Romaine Mundle and Aji Alese, who have both been sidelined for over a month already. Mundle got a serious hamstring injury whilst Alese fractured a bone in his leg in January, which he still hasn't fully recovered from.

Romaine Mundle and Aji Alese set to miss key Sunderland match

Both have trained for the past few weeks, but neither were involved for Sunderland's final Championship game against QPR last week.

There is a chance that they are involved on Friday, most likely from the bench, but Regis Le Bris has insisted that he does not want to rush their return and risk further aggravating any existing injury.

Giving them an extra few days to recover could mean that they are in contention for the second leg next Tuesday, which would be a huge boost should they pass the fitness tests ahead of the game at the Stadium of Light.

Le Bris said via the Northern Echo: “We don’t really have everyone available, because I think the time will be a bit short for Romaine and Aji to be involved in the first leg. But apart from that, it is the full squad. We’re looking more at Romaine being involved on Tuesday night than for Friday.”

Big chance for Enzo Le Fee

Mundle effectively being out of the fray for the first leg means that Enzo Le Fee will get another chance out on the wing for Sunderland, a position that he is slightly less comfortable with than playing centrally, but adept at nonetheless.

Le Fee started on the left wing in the defeat against QPR, failing to have a huge impact on the attack from out wide.

With such a big couple of games coming up, Le Bris' decisions are crucial and with almost an entire squad to pick from, he has some big decisions to make.

Most of the starting 11 has been pretty settled this season, but it will be interesting to see if defender Dan Ballard gets the nod after his 30-minute stint against QPR, and who will start up front between Wilson Isidor and Eliezer Mayenda.

Speaking on these selection decisions, the manager said: “It is not really going to be difficult (to make the decisions) because we are all involved in the same objective,” said Le Bris. “We know that, if we have different options to face different challenges, away and home, and hopefully over three games, then that is good.

“We will need everyone. This squad and these players are proud of what they have done so far. It is clear that we played as a team and a strong unit, even though we played with a different starting 11 and different subs. They were always ready to face the different challenges, and it was always as a group.

“Some of them will be disappointed for the first leg, maybe, but after that, they can switch on really quickly.”