Sunderland: Regis Le Bris drops positive update on Salis Abdul Samed and Ian Poveda situations | OneFootball

Sunderland are going to need all the bodies that they can get over this busy period of the season.

Updates on when Sunderland supporters can expect to see Salis Abdul Samed and Ian Poveda back in action have been provided by Regis Le Bris.

The summer window has turned out to be a very hit-and-miss time for the Wearsiders, this time round, with some signings hitting the ground running while others haven't even managed to get out of the blocks, let alone stumble out of them.

Injuries and general fitness issues have plagued the majority of the players who signed on deadline day (Abdul Samed, Ahmed Abdullahi and Milan Aleksic). Because of this, the trio have one first-team appearance and 32 total minutes between them, all of which have been provided by the Serbian midfielder.

It's not just the unknown prospects that have struggled to get up and running. Poveda, who had a good amount of Championship experience before arriving at the Stadium of Light, has also struggled to stay healthy in the first half a year of his three-year deal with the club.

Progress is being made, with some encouraging signs emerging on the Colombian and the Ghanaian loanee.

Salis Abdul Samed and Ian Poveda return timelines updated

Abdul Samed should finally become fully involved in Sunderland's first-team training in a weeks' time. The 24-year-old is yet to even appear in a matchday squad for the Black Cats, but that should change come the new year, when he is expected to become available for games.

Le Bris said, via the Northern Echo, on the RC Lens player: "Salis is on the way. I think this week was 11 of his recovery programme, so it should be around one week more before he is ready to join us in full training. So I'm hopeful he will be ready for the team at the beginning of January."

For the former Leeds United and Sheffield Wednesday player, who is also 24, he should be available for selection much sooner than his teammate. This will come at a handy time for Sunderland both because of their current injury issues and the annual December fixture congestion.

"Ian trained with us this [Thursday] morning, so he should be ready very quickly," the boss revealed.

Sunderland could do with having Poveda back sooner rather than later, in particular, as they are now going to be without Tommy Watson for two months after he picked up an ankle and knee injury versus Bristol City in midweek, leaving Le Bris short of options in wide areas.

A lot will be expected of returning Sunderland players over the upcoming weeks and months

When a player has been without game time for so long, as Abdul Samed and Poveda have been, you ideally want to ease them back into things, slowly building up the load that goes through their legs to not put them at further risk of injury.

This is a decision that Sunderland may struggle to wrestle with. They could really do with having more options in the middle of the park and out wide. Abdul Samed and Poveda would certainly help with that, but they aren't going to be ready to play a full 90 for some time.

With Le Bris' side not making the same big strides as some of the other promotion-chasing sides, they're going to need these players who are coming back from injury to get up to speed as quickly as they can so that they can help Sunderland push on with their battle to finish in the top two.