Tony Mowbray is preparing for Sunderland's first pre-season games without a number of first-teamers who remain sidelined due to injury. The Black Cats face National League North side South Shields and then National League side Gateshead in a double-header on Saturday, with Mowbray's men due to take on the Mariners at noon before heading to the International Stadium for a 4pm kick-off.
The games offer the first opportunity for Sunderland fans to see their team this summer, although two of the club's four summer signings will be absent. Dutch defender Jenson Seelt, who joined from PSV Eindhoven, is suffering from an ankle issue which is likely to see him miss the majority of pre-season, while Australia U23 defender Nectarios Triantis has been allowed to return Down Under for a couple of weeks' break because his season for club and country continued into June.
Along with those two players, midfielder Corry Evans (knee ligaments), striker Ross Stewart (Achilles), and defender Aji Alese (thigh) will not be fit for the start of the new season. Dennis Cirkin (ankle) is also still out of action, while Elliot Embleton is not yet ready to return from the broken ankle he suffered in December although he could be involved towards the end of Sunderland's pre-season trip to the USA.
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"Corry and Ross won't be making the start of the season," said Mowbray. "Elliot I'm pretty sure will - or might be available for it - and he is going to play some part in the last game in the US.
"Let's wait and see on that one. Dennis, I don't think is too far away. He'll be touch and go towards the beginning of the season.
"Seelt isn't training at the moment, he has got an ankle injury. Triantis is still in Australia because his season has only just finished, really, so we have given him a couple of weeks off to have a break before coming here for a ten-and-a-half month season.
"We'll filter them back in over the next few weeks. It's frustrating that we haven't got Aji, we haven't got Dennis, Ross, Corry, Elliott, but I'm sure they will filter in as the season starts. The likes of Elliott will filter into training before, really - maybe on the American trip."
Alese returned as a substitute in Sunderland's play-off semi-final second leg defeat at Luton Town in May, but Mowbray confirmed that he has suffered a recurrence of his thigh injury and is now likely to be missing for some time.
He said: "Aji is quite a way away, he won't be coming to the US with us which is a frustration because we gambled a little bit on him in that last game of last season against Luton and tried to get him up to speed to give us some physicality in the team.
"It was a team that, on paper, was outmuscled by a much more physical team so we tried to get him in and he suffered a recurrence really, which is not good for anybody. Aji is going to be a miss."
