”6-8 weeks” - Sunderland AFC: Regis Le Bris reveals double blow ahead of Millwall | OneFootball

Régis Le Bris has confirmed unfortunate injury news that will impact Sunderland's clash against Millwall

Régis Le Bris has confirmed Sunderland will be without both Romaine Mundle and Alan Browne for the next six to eight weeks.

This will come as a huge blow to the Black Cats, with two key players now both set to be out of action potentially until 2025.

Browne has made 12 appearances for Sunderland so far this season, with Mundle featuring in all 15 fixtures.

Browne arrived as a free agent from Preston North End in the summer, as has proven a key part of the side in their quest for promotion to the Premier League.

Meanwhile, Mundle has grown in importance to the Wearside outfit since the departure of Jack Clarke to Ipswich Town earlier this year.

Régis Le Bris confirms Sunderland injury blow

Speaking ahead of the team’s clash with Millwall this weekend, Le Bris has revealed that the pair will be absent through this important run of games in the lead-up to the new year.

The French coach confirmed that Browne has suffered a broken bone, while Mundle is out with an issue with his hamstring, but still expects to be able to field a talented set of players against Millwall.

“Probably [they] will be out for six weeks, six to eight weeks yeah,” said Le Bris, via the club’s official YouTube channel.

“Yes, [Browne has broken his leg], but we have the front level of fracture, so it should be about six to eight weeks, probably.

“We have to manage the situation often in the season.

“As a coach, we would like to have the full squad available all the time, but it doesn’t work like that.

“Especially in a long league like the Championship, 46 games, so we were prepared for that, but it’s always unpredictable, you can’t expect this suspension or this injury.

“But, I think with the quality of the group and the depth of the squad, we can manage many situations.

“Obviously, the first part of the season we played a lot with a core, which was probably 12, 13 players, so we created many references.

“It was like automatic sometimes, and it was good for the development of the team, but now we have to change many players, three, four, five, we don’t know exactly.

“But they trained with us before, and they are talented players, they know the context, they know the choo-choo, they know the game model, but they didn’t play a lot with the team in competitive games.

“So probably we’ll struggle for these collective behaviours, but from a talent perspective we will still have good players on the pitch.”

Sunderland league position

Sunderland will go into the weekend sitting top of the table with 31 points from a possible 45.

However, they have drawn their last three fixtures prior to the trip to Millwall and will now be without a number of key players.

Second place Sheffield United, who are level on points with Le Bris’ side, will also kick-off earlier on Saturday, so could move ahead in the standings before Sunderland get underway.

The Black Cats travel to the Den to face Millwall on Saturday in a 3pm kick-off.

Millwall will be a big test for Sunderland

Losing Browne and Mundle is a big blow for Sunderland, who are also without the likes of Jobe Bellingham and Trai Hume this weekend.

The trip to Millwall will be a big test of the team’s promotion credentials given how well Neil Harris’ side have performed in recent weeks, especially at home.

The London club have picked up wins over Leeds United and Burnley at home in the last month or so, giving them the confidence they can beat anyone in the division.