Dan Ballard and Luke O’Nien may be sidelined for Sunderland’s Championship match against QPR on Saturday.

In preparation for their Championship match against QPR on Saturday, Sunderland may be without their preferred center-back combination.

Dan Ballard is an early injury worry after being substituted off against Southampton on Saturday, and Luke O’Nien will undoubtedly miss the game as he serves the second of his two-game suspension for receiving ten yellow cards. “He’s come off with a hamstring injury, which isn’t great,” Mike Dodds, the interim manager of Sunderland, responded to a question regarding Ballard following the game. “I want to wait to comment on whether this is a minor or major issue because he will be evaluated on Monday,”

Sunderland’s injury-ravaged team would suffer a further setback if the 24-year-old were to go down, but how would they do without both Ballard and O’Nien, who have combined to start 33 of 37 league games this season? These are the likely choices for Dodds.

The Southampton game’s last four players

Late in the Southampton match, Ballard was replaced by Callum Styles. Jenson Seelt and Leo Hjelde moved to center back, while Trai Hume remained at right back.

Hjelde and Styles had only joined the team in January, so it was obvious that the quartet had never played as a back four. Consequently, the last 13 minutes at St Mary’s saw a great deal of disarray from Southampton’s rearguard as Saints replacement Joe Rothwell scored twice to make the score 4-2.

In the event that Ballard is unavailable, Hjelde is likely to play as a center-back, as he has stated in the past. Sunderland’s defense will need to be much tighter than it was in the closing moments against Southampton, and it will help that they have a full week to prepare for the QPR match.

Make Timothee Pembele a part of the side

Timothee Pembele is yet to start a game for the Black Cats and has only made five Championship outings since coming to Sunderland from PSG in the summer. This is partially because, at the time of his move to England, the 20-year-old was recuperating from a chronic injury, while Trai Hume has established himself as the starting right-back at the Stadium of Light.

However, if Hjelde is shifted to center back, Hume might go to the left side of defense, giving Pembele a chance to start on the right. When he played for the Sunderland under-21 team, the Frenchman, who has been available since December, showed promise as an offensive outlet.

Go to a back three.

Dodds declared he wasn’t scared to take risks when he was appointed temporary manager until the end of the season. The manager hasn’t ruled out using a similar system in the future, despite the fact that his decision to go to a back three against Swansea obviously didn’t work.

Hume did play in a back three last season as a right-sided center-back, so he might be paired with Seelt and Hjelde. In the event that Sunderland alter their configuration, Pembele and Styles might play as wing-backs. Whichever option Dodds selects, at a crucial point in the season, he will need some of his less seasoned players to come up quickly.

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