Régis Le Bris is hopeful that Ahmed Abdullahi and Jenson Seelt will soon be available for senior selection.

The pair were not involved with the squad as the fell to a 1-0 defeat against Hull City on Saturday afternoon as they continue their recovery from long-term injury, and have also missed the last two U21 fixtures.

Abdullahi scored a hat-trick in his last appearance for Graeme Murty’s side in a thumping win over Wolves, but has not yet completed 90 minutes since returning from groin surgery. Seelt was named in the squad as Sunderland beat Luton Town a couple of weeks ago, though that was mainly due to Ian Poveda’s unexpected absence on the night.

Le Bris says both players are continuing to make progress but admitted that both needed time to reach the level required to be considered for selection.

“Sometimes, it’s not an overload, but when you recover after a long injury it is not easy to find the rhythm of the team and it’s still difficult to be connected with the dynamic of the team. You have to manage these different curves for each player. For different reasons, they have not been able to connect. I hope now that we will have these players fully available and with us, but so far it was not the case.”

Seelt could be needed in the senior squad for the trip to Sheffield Wednesday after Dan Ballard suffered a hamstring injury in the defeat to Hull. Ballard was replaced shortly after half time and with Aji Alese out until pre-season, senior options would be light if the influential defender was to be out for a period of time.

Sunderland are also assessing Enzo Le Fée after he too picked up a hamstring injury in the Hull defeat. Sunderland hope that their attacking options will be boosted by the return of Tommy Watson to full training this week, with Romaine Mundle making his comeback in the second half at the Stadium of Light on Saturday.

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