"More or less..." - Sunderland boss scratching head while Chris Wilder relaxes ahead of Sheffield United final
"More or less..." - Regis Le Bris scratching his head while Chris Wilder relaxes ahead of Sheffield United v Sunderland play-off final
Chris Wilder put his head on the pillow earlier this week safe in the knowledge of the Sheffield United side he will send out to face Sunderland in Saturday’s play-off final at Wembley - a luxury his opposite number Regis Le Bris does not have. The Blades have a clean bill of health ahead of the big final, with a couple of injury concerns for the Black Cats.
Romaine Mundle is the biggest doubt, having missed some training in the aftermath of Sunderland’s dramatic semi-final progression against Coventry City, while Patrick Roberts has also been nursing a calf issue lately.
Le Bris was given nothing away in his pre-match press conference ahead of the trip to Wembley but he admitted he has not yet made a decision on his starting XI to take on the Blades under the Wembley arch, suggesting he may be giving Mundle and Roberts as long as possible to prove their fitness.
“Everyone is available, more or less,” said the Frenchman in his press conference on Thursday. “It’s the end of the season, you can have little injuries but it’s the last game and you can manage the pain. So we’ll see.
“We’ll see... it’s always the case that at the end of the season you have to manage injuries. I’m really happy now because I think the group is bigger than before, but it’s always the case that you have to manage different scenarios and also your substitutions. We’ll see. I can’t say that we have 100% availability because it is not, but more or less. I will have options.”
On his starting XI, Le Bris added: “It is not decided yet. We have one more session tomorrow. We have now two or three options which is good, because it wasn’t often the case this season. Sometimes it was tough because we didn’t have different options to play against different options.
“But this was also an opportunity to grow because sometimes with constraints, you have to work on things that can be useful later. I think this has been the case of us last season. We’ll have the last session on Friday and then we’ll decide the starting XI and then who after that can be our finishers. We’ll see.”
Sunderland finished fourth and 16 points adrift of third-placed United in the final Championship table but that will count for little when the final gets underway at 3.01pm on Saturday. “We can talk about talent, tactics but probably the strongest quality of this group is mindset,” said Le Bris.
“The way they’re connected and how they manage different emotions. When they’re a starter or they aren’t, they’re still connected. It’s not always a question of age, it’s a question of the path.
“You can be 17 and be ready for this fixture, or you can be 30 and have problems managing the emotions of the game. They seem mature and after that, we’ll find out during the game if it’s the case or not. We’ll have a strong opponent.”