ADIL Aouchiche's Sunderland future remains uncertain ahead of the January transfer window, despite the forward returning to the first team fold in recent weeks.

Aouchiche only made one substitute appearance in the first three months of the season and was regularly left out of Sunderland's matchday squads.

But with the Black Cats suffering a string of injury setbacks to attackers in recent weeks, opportunities have come the way of Aouchiche, who has impressed Le Bris and his Sunderland teammates with the way he's dealt with his lack of action so far this season.

He was handed his first start of the season at Stoke City yesterday and played well, despite Sunderland suffering more late heartbreak as Stoke scored a stoppage time winner, but it's still not clear whether he'll remain on Wearside beyond next month's transfer window.

"With Adil, I think it is too early to say what will happen in January," said Sunderland's head coach.

"A season is full of many experiences. You can start with an idea but with the evolution of the season, you can change your assessment of the situation. It is probably too early to decide and we'll see how we can build this second half of the season."

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Summer signing Milan Aleksic also made his first Sunderland start of the season at the bet365 Stadium, replacing the injured Chris Rigg in midfield.

Le Bris said: "We needed players on the pitch! They deserved to play this game because they have been connected in the training sessions and this was their opportunity.

"It is good to have them and their mindset is positive. They were ready to play and I think that they showed many things, many positive things. It's another experience for them and it's good for us as a team to have them."

Stoke ended a nine-game winless run to beat the Black Cats, with interim manager Ryan Shawcross getting a tune out of the Potters players after Narcis Pelach was sacked as manager on Friday.

Le Bris said: "They reacted well. The fans were very connected with the team. Probably if we scored the dynamic would have been more fragile but because of the score, they stayed alive and maybe for them it could be a positive trigger for their dynamic."