Le Bris reveals injury blow for Sunderland star – but confirms Xhaka has returned to training

Regis Le Bris has revealed that Granit Xhaka is back fit and in contention for Sunderland’s upcoming match against Fulham.

Xhaka has been out with an ankle injury of late but has been back in training this week.

“Granit has more or less trained fully this week so is available for selection,” Le Bris said.

“He’ll have to respect the process but it’s good because now we have three or four midfielders available. The competition is important in the group, we can’t play with only 11 players.”

Le Bris also provided an update on Bertrand Traore. He said: “Next week he will rejoin the group and might be available soon.”

In terms of fresh injury news, Le Bris said: “Reinildo won’t be available for at least three or four weeks. Knee injury so he’ll potentially be back after Brighton.

“It was during the game against Liverpool. The first diagnosis wasn’t positive, but the second diagnosis was more positive so he needs a short period of rest then he will be back.”

Sunderland’s unbeaten run at home was ended by Liverpool last time out, but are looking to get back to winning ways against Fulham.

Le Bris said: “We were aware of the fragility of the run because the Premier League is so demanding. If it’s broken that doesn’t mean we aren’t able to be strong at home again.”

“Fulham are a well-established Premier League team, their patterns play through you and through the pressure. They are not perfect but they are strong, it will be a good test for us.”

“We have 12 games left so 36 points available. We know in this league there are no easy games. We want to stay bold, aggressive, ambitious.”