In spite of calling Patrick Roberts’ most recent injury setback a “horrible” blow to both the winger and Sunderland, Michael Beale has urged Abdoullah Ba and Romaine Mundle to seize their chances in the coming weeks.
The Black Cats are prepared for bad news as Roberts is scheduled to undergo a scan today regarding the hamstring injury he sustained at Huddersfield. The wideman appears to be out for at least a month.
“The scan is today, it’s the other side of the hamstring to what he did earlier in the season, but we think it’s very similar,” Beale told reporters on Friday.
We obviously find it very painful to accept, as we attempted to control his minutes. We were taking care of a calf when we ended up pulling a hamstring. To be honest, it’s awful for Paddy and the team.”
Now, Beale has to choose whether to start Romaine Mundle for the first time since January or move Abdoullah Ba to the right flank on Saturday against Birmingham.
“We need to focus on our right side,” he stated. Despite the loss of our primary starter, Abdoullah and Romaine have a great opportunity.
“Recently, we have scored several goals from that side; Abdoullah has been in
Romaine and her partner will need to share the minutes this weekend due to the way this week has gone and the amount of time they have spent together. It’s reasonable to assume that Romaine and Abdoullah will share a few minutes in that role.
Callum Styles may find that Saturday’s match comes too soon, but he is back to full training and will undoubtedly be ready to play when Swansea visits next week.
“On Callum, it was his second full session today so we will have to see,” Beale said.
There is some tenderness present. He will be fully recovered by next week, so it will be interesting to see if and how much he can play.
We don’t know much about him because we’ve only had a few sessions with him. By the way, he plays football really well.”
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