Mike Dodds explains surprise absence from matchday squad against Bristol City

MIKE DODDS felt Aji Alese’s return to first-team action was one of the major positives to emerge from yesterday’s goalless draw with Bristol City – before explaining why Abdoullah Ba missed out at the Stadium of Light.

Having been sidelined since January because of a recurrence of the thigh injury that had already ruled him out of the whole of the first half of the campaign, Alese returned to the first-team fold when he replaced Leo Hjelde in the 66th minute of his side’s draw with the Robins.

With neither Hjelde nor Callum Styles having been able to make the left-back slot their own in the last few games, Alese finds himself with an opportunity to reclaim a spot on the left of the back four in the remaining five matches of the season.

And while Dodds is determined not to push the defender too hard given his injury issues in the last 12 months, he was impressed with the way he slotted back in yesterday.

“He’s a great kid and I thought he did really well when he came on,” said Sunderland’s interim head coach. “He played 90 minutes on Wednesday for the Under-21s which was important for him because he’s been back training with us but he hasn’t had a huge amount of match minutes.

“So, to get him on the pitch was always my plan and I thought he was really good. He’s a welcome addition to the group.”

Ba was not part of yesterday’s matchday squad, with Dodds revealing that the French youngster’s absence was a selection decision rather than because of an injury issue.

“Abdoullah will be disappointed, but we want competition for places and I think it's a huge positive that he's been left out of the squad and will have to react and be better than the other players who are in his way at the moment.

“I'll have the same decision on Tuesday (at Leeds) in terms of what the bench is like, we don't make those decisions lightly or pick them out of thin air.

“We knew that we were going to get Aji out on the pitch and you can never fully predict your subs as Monday showed, but you're trying to work out who might last however long etc. It was just on this occasion that Abdoullah missed out.”