The head coach of Sunderland has given an update on Chris Rigg, Anthony Patterson, and Dan Ballard’s fitness.
Ahead of Sunderland’s trip to Preston North End this week, head coach Régis Le Bris has given a major update on Chris Rigg, Dan Ballard, and Anthony Patterson.
Alan Browne, a Republic of Ireland international, started in place of Rigg, 17, who was absent from last weekend’s Championship goalless draw against Queens Park Rangers at Loftus Road.
Following the match, Le Bris expressed his optimism that Rigg will resume training this week. Sunderland’s Championship fixtures are against Coventry City at the Stadium of Light on Saturday afternoon and Preston North End on Wednesday evening.
Le Bris did, however, clarify that Rigg was eligible for selection prior to Wednesday’s match. Although Patterson is not expected to play in the match, the Frenchman also disclosed that Ballard was healthy following his recent injury problems for the match against Preston North End.
Le Bris responded, “Yes,” when asked if Rigg and Ballard were available for the Preston game. “The report is done every morning and it was better this morning so probably for Preston it will be too short but we’ll see for Saturday,” he added of Patterson.
“A lot of players are back in the team, which is great because we were on the edge before,” he continued. For instance, Rigg and Ballard, Eliezer, and Aji are training with the club right now, which is wonderful news, even though they aren’t for Preston yet.
Regarding Rigg, Sunderland’s head coach went on to say that he was “really pleased” that the teenager will be back available for selection after training well on Monday morning after suffering a chest injury prior to last weekend’s match against QPR.
Naturally, we can think of a lot of different things when we have a chest problem, but thankfully, it wasn’t too awful, and he trained really well this morning, so I’m definitely happy about that. He is really important to us, therefore we are happy for him and the squad.
In terms of the team’s balance, Patrick and Trai are playing a great game in that triangle. When you lose an element like that, you have to rebuild or recreate something new, which takes time. Sometimes the results are different, but it’s crucial for us, and I’m glad he will play for Preston.
Le Bris went on to say of Ballard: “He feels good and I think when he returned the first time he struggled because he wasn’t 100 percent from his feelings about his ankle, his tight as well. Now he’s really good so it’s different and when you struggle with pain it’s still difficult to find the right behaviour on the pitch. Now he’s good and we know that we have many players with four yellow cards so we don’t know when it will happen.”
With midfielder Jobe Bellingham suspended after receiving a red card against QPR, Le Bris also talked about the depth of his squad: “We have a squad with I think 16, 17 players able to play in the core and then we have other young players.” Although they require foundations in order to manifest themselves, the core is currently present, so I’m comfortable with the choices we have.We’ll need to develop something new, but it won’t be an issue given our current culture.
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