Sunderland injury news: Le Bris provides update on Ballard and six others ahead of Crystal Palace clash | OneFootball

Sunderland boss Regis Le Bris says defender Dan Ballard will miss this weekend’s game against Crystal Palace – but hopes to have him back for the following clash against Aston Villa.

Ballard suffered a groin injury in the 2-0 defeat to Burnley but Le Bris hopes to have him back next week.

“Dan should be back for Aston Villa,” the Black Cats boss said.

Sunderland will be without several other stars for the clash with Crystal Palace, however, with Dennis Cirkin, Aji Alese, Luke O’Nien, Leo Hjelde and Romain Mundle again set to miss out.

But Le Bris hopes defender O’Nien will also be back for the game against Villa, having not played since dislocating his shoulder in the Championship play-off final.

“It’s a bit longer than expected for the others,” Le Bris said.

“For Dennis, we have to wait a bit. He didn’t heal completely after his wrist injury and he had an issue with his knee as well. So he needs to rest a bit.

“Luke should be ready around Aston Villa.

“Leo struggled with his achilles, so it’s a bit longer than expected as well.

“Aji is close to coming back but after a long period without playing, it’s still tough to reconnect with the level. So we’ll have to wait a bit.”

On Mundle, he added: “I think we are looking at the next international break.”

Le Bris is also unsure whether deadline day signing Bertrand Traore will be able to be involved this weekend having played for Burkina Faso during the international break.

“I don’t know for Bertrand, because Bertrand was with his national team during this period,” he said.

“So we’ll see this afternoon.

“For the two others (Brian Brobbey and Lutsharel Geertruida), they seem okay. Probably not ready for 90 minutes right now, but they should be ready quickly, I think.”