On the latest episode of the Roar Podcast, Jason Jones and Phil Smith discuss the latest injury situation at Sunderland ahead of their trip to face Coventry City at the CBS Arena.
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00:00What's the sort of injury latest heading into the playoffs?
00:04I mean, does it feel as if, despite the run of results,
00:07Sunderland are actually in a pretty strong position
00:09given the personnel he should have available to?
00:13I think probably just about as well as we could have hoped, I think.
00:18I think the big update yesterday was that, you know,
00:21Mundell is unlikely to play any part on Friday night,
00:24which I think is a big blow.
00:27I've got to be honest,
00:28I never anticipated him to start the game, to be honest.
00:30I think looking at the fact that, you know,
00:32he hasn't played since early April in that West Brom game,
00:35but also the fact that he was only just then coming back
00:37from a previous hamstring injury,
00:39I didn't see him come back into the start of the 11th,
00:41but I thought he could potentially be a really good sort of explosive option
00:43off the bench late on.
00:45So that's a big blow.
00:47As you at least say, we're kind of waiting to see
00:49whether he'll be involved in Friday night.
00:51Both of them should be able to play some part on Tuesday,
00:53which could be really important.
00:55I think aside from that,
00:56I think there are a lot of positives in terms of where the squad's at.
00:59I think the fact that Serkan and Ballard are both,
01:02you know,
01:03genuine contenders to start the game tomorrow is a massive positive
01:07because I think three,
01:08four weeks ago there were obviously would have been a big question mark
01:10over that when they both had hamstring injury.
01:11So the fact that their return has been successful,
01:14I think is a big boost,
01:15especially Serkan,
01:16because as we've discussed a few times on this podcast,
01:19I think that the fact that,
01:20you know,
01:21something that really lacked from having a natural attacking fullback
01:24on that left-hand side.
01:25So I think that's a big boost.
01:27And then obviously the other aspect of it is,
01:29is of course,
01:30we haven't had any other injuries in the last couple of weeks.
01:32You know,
01:32all those key players who Labrice has managed,
01:35who's sort of wrapped up in cotton ball,
01:36they're all ready to go for this game.
01:38So I think this is what this has all been about.
01:41Labrice has spoken to people within the club.
01:43He knows what happened in those Luton games
01:44when the squad,
01:45you know,
01:46was in a really,
01:47really bad place physically,
01:48certainly not mentally,
01:49or even in terms of their level of performance.
01:51And so having this whole strategy has been about avoiding that
01:54and it's been largely successful,
01:57I think.
01:58And if you're looking for reasons to be positive,
02:00I think that's clearly the main one.