Tony Mowbray will leave it late before deciding whether to include Amad in Sunderland's starting line-up at Burnley tonight, with the forward having travelled 'halfway round the world' on international duty. On-loan Manchester United man Amad was away with the Ivory Coast during the international break, taking part in The Elephants' Africa Cup of Nations qualifying double-header against Comoros.
Amad was an unused substitute as Ivory Coast won 3-1 at home, but started the return fixture and played more than 70 minutes as The Elephants won 2-0. Ivory Coast are top of their qualification group, but in fact were already assured of qualification for the finals as the host nation when the tournament takes place in January and February next year.
The long journey back to Wearside meant that Amad has had no time to train ahead ahead of the trip to Turf Moor and Mowbray will have to decide whether he is ready to start against the Championship leaders. Edouard Michut and Abdoullah Ba have both been away with France U19 and were involved in a series of three friendlies played in Marbella, Spain.
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They returned on Thursday and were able to do a cool-down session, but again Mowbray will have to decide what part they can play against the Clarets. "Those lads came back on Thursday," said Mowbray. "Amad missed training, came back and got straight on the bus.
"The other two [Michut and Ba] arrived back yesterday morning but they had played the day before, so they coolled down really. That's international week - the [Burnley] game got brought forward to the Friday, otherwise they would have had a proper training day.
"As it is, they will do a cool down and get on the bus. They'll all be on the bus and we'll see how they are - I need to talk to them.
"We don't need to make decisions until we need to make decisions. Amad has been halfway round the world, while the two French kids have started two games out of three and came on [as substitutes] in the other. We'll see how they are."
Mowbray's already-diminished squad has been further hit by injuries during the international break, with defender Dan Ballard expected to be out for between two and three weeks with a hamstring problem he suffered while away with Northern Ireland, and winger Jewison Bennette likely to miss the rest of the season after dislocating his shoulder while on duty with Costa Rica. Ross Stewart (Achilles), Corry Evans (cruciate ligament), and Aji Alese (thigh), have already been ruled out for the remainder of the campaign, and Elliot Embleton (broken ankle) seems unlikely to return this season.
But Dennis Cirkin was due to travel to Burnley after recovering from the after-effects of concussion he suffered last month, and fellow full-back Niall Huggins is also close to a return although he is likely to play in another U21 game before he is back in contention for the first-team.
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