Sunderland AFC: Regis Le Bris reveals setback for Black Cats summer signing | OneFootball

The RC Lens loanee is yet to appear for the Sunderland first-team.

Sunderland Deadline Day signing Salis Abdul Samed is not expected to make his Sunderland debut until early December, Regis Le Bris has revealed, after suffering a setback with his fitness.

As much as the Black Cats have and should receive a lot of praise for some of the business they did in the summer window, bringing in the likes of Alan Browne, Chris Mepham and Wilson Isidor, but there are question marks surrounding some of their other acquisitions.

The Wearside outfit left themselves with a fair bit of work to do on the final day of the window, but they ended up bringing in four new players. As well as Mepham, who joined on a season-long loan from AFC Bournemouth, Ahmed Abdullahi, Milan Aleksic and Abdul Samed all agreed to move to the Stadium of Light on August 30.

The Welsh defender's impact has been felt, but none of those other final day deals have offered Sunderland anything as of yet, with zero appearances between the trio. Serbian midfielder Aleksic is the only one that has appeared in a Black Cats matchday squad - he was most recently on the bench against Queens Park Rangers.

The reason for their sustained absences has been due to fitness and acclimitisation, as we saw last season with Nazariy Rusyn that these players with no experience of living or playing in England can take a while to get used to things.

Even though it's now been over two months since he joined, Abdul Samed, specifically, is no closer to making his Sunderland debut.

Sunderland AFC: Regis Le Bris confirms Salis Abdul Samed absence set to continue

Le Bris revealed that the Ghana international Samed, who arrived on loan from Ligue 1 side RC Lens, is going to have to wait until the final month of 2024 before he can make his first appearance for Sunderland.

"I think Salis will need to wait until the beginning of December,"Le Bris revealed in his pre-Preston North End press conference.

"It was a re-injury so we need time. There are many games to play."

The Wearsiders' luck with injuries this season hasn't been the best. They are set to be without number one goalkeeper Anthony Patterson for yet another game, but, in some more positive news, Chris Rigg has been back in training after missing Saturday's trip to Loftus Road.

He will be available for the trip to Deepdale, as will Dan Ballard, who has been out since Sunderland's game against Middlesbrough in late September.

Sunderland AFC summer recruitment has showed to be a mixed bag so far

You can pretty easily make the case that more than half of the players signed by Sunderland in the summer have had little to no impact on the team.

Wilson Isidor and Mepham have been successes, but even someone like Ian Poveda has been hit by injuries and been unable to show what he can do in a red and white striped shirt.

Had there not been such marked improvement by this team, in large part because of their new head coach, then there would have been real pressure on these signings to be effective, which they simply couldn't do because of all their fitness problems.

Someone like Aleksic, who has plenty of experience for a teenager in Serbia's top flight, might have been given that chance, but the rest of them physically wouldn't have been able to help.

This is what Sunderland do though; they don't always sign players for the here and now. That happened more so in the window just gone than in other previous ones, but Aleksic, Abdullahi and Abdul Samed weren't expected to make an immediate impact like an Alan Browne was.

The good thing is that these projects are being allowed time to develop because of the performances of their teammates. Even after the draw against QPR, they still sit top of the Championship after 13 games.

If they continue on this trajectory, then it will give these players, like Abdul Samed, the time that they need to get to the point where they can start to affect games for Sunderland.