Sunderland handed double injury blow for Millwall as Le Bris makes squad admission

Sunderland will head to Millwall without five regulars after head coach Regis Le Bris confirmed that Romaine Mundle and Alan Browne will be sidelined for “six to eight weeks.”

Browne has a fracture in his leg while Mundle has a hamstring strain. It is a bitter blow for Le Bris who will already be without suspended trio Jobe Bellingham, Patrick Roberrs and Trai Hume in east London.

“We have to manage this situation often in a season,” sighed Le Bris. “We would like, as a coach, to have the full squad available the whole time but it won’t be like that, especially in the long league season, with the Championship over 46 games.So we were prepared for that but it’s always unpredictable when you have suspensions and injuries.

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“But obviously we have the depth of squad to manage these situations. In the first part of the season we played with the core of probably 12 players or 13 players. So we created many references and it was automatic sometimes. It was good for the development of the team and now we have to change four or five players.

"They [replacements] have trained with us before and they are talented players. They know the context, the culture, the game model but they haven’t played a lot with the team in competitive games. So probably we will struggle for these collective behaviours but from our perspective we still have good players on the pitch.”

He added: “Football is unpredictable and life is unpredictable so we have to manage the situation with confidence. I trust the team, I trust the players, I trust the mindset of the team.

“We have been back together as a whole group and the mindset of the team was very good. These players [replacements] played in the Championship before, although obviously not that team or that set-up. But they are ready.”

The absentees will not alter Sunderland's approach to the game, though and when asked if it would, Le Bris continued: “No, not really. We used this international break to make a review of our game model. Probably we have three or four layers in many very different phases. Now we have to start on the first and second one to master the foundations.

“But for the mindset of the team it’s still the same idea, same identity of team, for the players and the club. We want to win, we want to play fast, we want to attack fast when possible, with less positions but it’s not a problem for us, we want to score.

“Out of possession we want to defend together in a compact block. When it’s possible to push more and be more aggressive, let’s do it. And protect our goal. “So the identity is still the same. But with different players at different stages and it’s still a new experience.”