Jack Ross says it will take his fit-again players time to get up to speed mentally as well as physically.
Ross is yet to have a fully-fit squad as Sunderland manager, and Charlie Wyke’s knee injury means it will be at least another eight weeks until he does. Aiden McGeady made his first appearance of the season at Burton Albion, but Wyke’s first league start ended prematurely when he damaged ligaments in his knee in a challenge with goalkeeper Dimitar Evtimov.
It was the same knee Wyke injured during pre-season with Bradford City. Sunderland signed the centre-forward knowing he would not be fit for the start of the new campaign.
Wyke and McGeady are not the only key players Ross has seen little of in Sunderland colours. Versatile defender Tom Flanagan has only played 18 minutes of football, Jerome Sinclair was also making his first league start and Dylan McGeouch did the previous week, only to miss the trip to the east Midlands with a muscle injury. Duncan Watmore returned to full training this week after cruciate knee ligament damage in November.
Two-time League One-winning left-back Reece James has only started two league matches after picking up an injury just one game into pre-season.
“We’ve chopped and changed a lot because of the players available and the different injuries we had,” said Ross. “Some of the players are probably further ahead in terms of understanding what we want than others because the injured ones aren’t on the training pitch every day. They’re not always in the analysis meeting because we stagger when players are coming in for rehab and training to avoid players sitting about.
“The evolution of what you do can be missed by some of them. Duncan, for example, will miss quite a lot of these things because he’s missed quite a lot through rehab.
“Tom’s different because he did a lot of pre-season with us so he’s a bit more aware.
“But they’re playing catch-up in that respect. I know a lot of people think when you get a player back from injury it’s just physical and fitness. But every single week they stayed healthy they become more accustomed to what we’re trying to do.”
Sunderland have not been at their best in recent weeks, culminating in their first defeat of the League One season at the Pirelli Stadium. But Ross has been delighted with the attitude his players have shown.
“As a team are they an absolute reflection of how you’re trying to do things? Maybe not,” he admitted. “But I’ve been delighted with what they’ve given me, how resilient they’ve been and their response to going behind in games. But we can get better in every aspect of the game.
“They also believe that. It’s important as a manager because if they’re sitting there thinking, ‘Do you know what? I’m giving my absolute maximum’ you might have an issue but they all know individually some of them can improve and as a group we’ll get stronger and better.
“The league we’re in is an experience for us. I’ve learnt a lot, I listen a lot and I can tell from their comments that every single week that goes past they know more about what they’re going to face from the opposition. That’s helpful for us as well.”
Max Power serves the final match of his suspension (effectively his fourth because he was also prevented from appearing in the Football League Trophy) on Saturday, when Rochdale are the visitors to the Stadium of Light.
