Tony Mowbray has explained his decision to take Aji Alese off at half-time in Sunderland's weekend 5-1 defeat against Stoke City was forced upon him. Left-back Alese was withdrawn at the interval along with on-loan Leeds United striker Joe Gelhardt, with Luke O'Nien and Edouard Michut replacing them.
Gelhardt's substitution came in a game in which he had made little impact against Stoke's defence, and the move to replace him with midfielder Michut allowed Mowbray to move Amad into a more central role. But Alese was taken off after suffering an injury in the opening 45 minutes, although Mowbray did not disclose the exact nature of the problem.
Sunderland will now monitor Alese this week in the hope that the will be fit to face Norwich City at Carrow Road on Sunday. "Aji was injured so he had to come off," said Mowbray.
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"That's disappointing and I'm not quite sure how bad that is going to be. With young Gelhardt I just think the confidence is low and I didn't want to expose him, I wanted to get Amad higher up the pitch because we've done that with relative success in the past. Edouard was unfortunate not to start the game so that seemed the obvious one for me - but the left back situation was enforced."
Sunderland could have Dennis Cirkin available again this coming weekend, as the defender resumed light training last week ahe he continues his recovery from the after-effects of concussion he suffered a month ago. And Lynden Gooch also joined in with training at the end of last week, as he steps up his recovery from the hip flexor injury that has kept him out since mid-January.
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