Sunderland receive crucial Luke O'Nien boost ahead of Swansea City trip | OneFootball

O'Nien is set to return to the Black Cats' squad for this weekend's trip to Swansea.

Sunderland boss Regis Le Bris has confirmed that Luke O'Nien will return to action this weekend against Swansea City, after missing the Bristol City game due to illness.

A number of reasons and factors have combined to create many selection problems for the French head coach over recent weeks and months. It's mostly been injuries that have hampered Sunderland, but a bout of suspensions and then a bug that was caught by a few players in the Black Cats' camp caused further issues.

In their 2-1 victory over Stoke City, Luke O'Nien started and played the full 90 minutes whilst feeling under the weather, such is his nature.

Le Bris initially expected him to be okay for the midweek clash against Bristol City, but the defender was omitted from the squad.

Regis Le Bris provides Luke O'Nien availability update

The boss has revealed that O'Nien has got over the illness that affected him, and Patrick Roberts, who was put on the bench for the clash with the Robins in which he scored a late equaliser.

Le Bris said, on the versatile defender: "He will be available this weekend. It will be good to have him back. We have a lot of games and we need the whole squad ready."

Prior to Tuesday, the 30-year-old had started all of Sunderland's league games this season, playing in multiple positions across the backline in order to accommodate for missing people.

As is in keeping with the Black Cats' availability luck, when one comes back another one goes. Teenage winger Tommy Watson is set to be out for two months with an ankle and knee issue as a result of a tackle from Zak Vyner on Tuesday evening.

It's been obvious to see that Le Bris' players haven't recently had the same cutting edge that they possessed towards the start of the season.

The goals have dried up a bit, but they need to make sure that they continue to pick up points at a good rate so as to not let those ahead of them build too big of a gap.

Roberts has openly admitted that Sunderland need to score more goals if they want to be one of the top teams in the division, but they can learn something from the league leaders.

Sheffield United aren't blowing teams away; they win tight games thanks to moments of quality and being tight at the back.

Now, Sunderland don't currently have the same number of weapons in the final third that Chris Wilder does, but they can get back to conceding less goals, which, if they do so, will inherently allow them to pick up points.