Tony Mowbray, the manager of Sunderland, has provided an update on the fitness of Aji Alese and Timothee Pembele.
Sunderland’s U21 squad is exercising with Aji Alese to ease him back into the intensity of first-team football. Since suffering a thigh injury in March, defender Alese has made just one appearance from the substitutes’ bench, lasting just over half an hour, and that brief appearance – in the second leg of the Black Cats’ play-off semi-final at Luton Town in May – saw him aggravate the problem, with Tony Mowbray later admitting that he was rushed back as the club struggled with a central defensive injury crisis as they pushed for promotion.
However, the 22-year-old has been progressively working his way back to full health and is on the verge of joining Mowbray’s senior team, albeit he is still training with Graeme Murty’s U21 side. Alese may potentially play for the U21s to gain match fitness before joining the club’s Championship campaign.
“With Aji, we’ve put him with the U21s for a week or so, just so that he can build up in terms of the intensity,” said Mowbray. “He’s been out for a long time so we have to be careful putting him back into first-time training.
“He’ll train with the U21s for a little while so he can work his way in and build himself up. Then in a week or so when he feels really confident and comfortable, he’ll come back and train with us.
“So he’s not too far away.”
Timothee Pembele, the club’s summer signing, is also getting closer to a return to fitness, although having yet to play since joining from Paris St Germain. Pembele is still healing from the affects of a catastrophic knee ligament injury he sustained last year, but he did play in France earlier this year.
Mowbray said: “Pembele was out on the grass yesterday, doing just some work with the physio. Sidefoot volleys, running round the cones, those kinds of things.
“Again, that’s telling me that he’s not too far away.”
Sunderland are still waiting for international midfielder Chris Rigg to return from the U17 World Cup in Indonesia, where he represented England. The Young Lions finished first in their group but were eliminated from the competition after a 2-1 loss to Uzbekistan on Wednesday.
Rigg will not be able to play in this weekend’s Championship game at Plymouth Argyle, but he might be included in Mowbray’s plans for either Wednesday night’s home game against Huddersfield Town or next weekend’s visit to Millwall. “I’m not sure when he’ll be back exactly, he obviously won’t be coming with us this weekend,” Mowbray stated.
“When he gets back, he’ll be back involved with us training hopefully at the start of next week. We’ll of course see how he is and how he feels, how much the travelling and the games have taken out of him.
“He’ll be back involved with us when he’s ready, he deserves it. I’ve said it a lot, we have a lot of talented young players come train with us but he’s just a little bit special.
“I put that down not just to his talent but his amazing attitude, which sets him aside a bit. He’s got no fear not just of training with the first team but competing and engaging.
“His place in the squad is warranted, I’m delighted he’s had that experience of going away to a World Cup and we’ll integrate him back in as quickly as we can.”
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