Wed Mar 05, 2025 5:35 am
When are Sunderland’s injured players expected to return?
Sunderland have had a terrible time with injuries.
Speaking on The Roar podcast, SAFC chief writer Phil Smith said: “Le Fée will definitely be back before the end of the season, unless he has a setback, but it was four to six weeks and it will be a fortnight on Saturday since he suffered his injury. So, all being well, he could be back for the last games of March after the international break. More realistically, you're probably looking at early mid-April, but I think there's every chance that he gets a few games running into that play-off campaign. So, at the moment, we shouldn't have any negativity about Le Fée in terms of playing an impact at the end of the season.
“Ballard's obviously going to be a bit tighter in terms of having another couple of weeks off the back of that. So, with Ballard, hopefully, he'll be fit for the play-offs, but it'll also be about how much match fitness he can get before that.
“Poveda, we don't know yet. Obviously, not great. He's missed another game and he's just really struggling to get any momentum. Tommy Watson should be back in the squad this weekend. So there’s another option. Obviously, I don't think he's going to be starting games straight away, but he can certainly make a bit of an impact off the bench, which helps you manage Mundle’s workload. That's a really big positive.
“Then it's a case of your Seelt, your Abdullahi, players like that. Seelt, he’s just topping up his minutes in the under-21s, really, which I think is sensible until he's needed. Abdullahi still clearly isn't over that groin injury, which is definitely a concern.”