Tony Mowbray admits he may have to ease Jewison Bennette back into the action after the Costa Rican international was halfway across the globe on international duty. The new Sunderland forward has had quite the fortnight, scoring a late equaliser against Watford and then notching a brace against South Korea as his side continues their preparation for the Qatar World Cup.
The Sunderland boss is hoping to take advantage of Bennette's recent highs and utilise the youngster to full effect, while also balancing out fatigue from traveling. Mowbray handed his players some time off to recoup and recover following a hectic start to the Championship campaign.
The back-to-back nature of this season's early fixture list, ahead of the winter break for the World Cup, has made it difficult to integrate some new arrivals into starting XI.
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Speaking to safc.com Mowbray said: "I felt as though they'd had a really tough run with midweek games going into that break so we did give them a couple of days off. A couple of days in and then a couple of days off.
"The internationals were away - the new lads have been away - Abdoullah Ba was away in France and Jewison was away in Seoul in South Korea, still is and won't be back until training on Friday. I think he gets back evening on Thursday night, so it's difficult to integrate them into a team when they've been halfway around the world.
"But, I'd have to say Jewi - as we call him - has had a massive impact. The goal he scored at Watford and then he's been away with his country and scored a couple of goals as well so he'll come back on a high and we've got to try and utilise things like that.
"Balance it off against a guy who's been halfway around the world with jetlag etc coming back."
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