Sunderland star available for Millwall clash after ‘frustrating’ absence

Millwall face a huge test on the other side of the international break, facing Championship leaders Sunderland as they look to get back into the top six. Sunderland have lost just two of their first 15 games, winning nine and planting their flag in the automatic promotion race in Regis Le Bris’ first season in charge.

 

The Lions went into the break on the back of a draw with Stoke City, falling outside of the playoff spots, while Sunderland beat Luton Town, but Neil Harris’ men have cracked a code over recent weeks, looking very solid defensively, and even against some impressive teams like Leeds United.

Sunderland know they will face a big test at The Den, but they will be helped by a couple of returning players between Aji Alese, who has returned over recent days, while Dan Ballard got back after long spell out over the weekend, linking up with Northern Ireland soon after.

“I feel all right now,” Ballard told the PA news agency. “It’s been a frustrating month; I’ve not played too much football this season so it’s been stop-start so far, but I’m just happy to be back out there training and I feel ready to get some minutes now.

“I’ve been training for two or three weeks now and I got some minutes at the weekend with Sunderland. Even though it was only a few I’ve been running a lot, training a lot with the boys and I feel thereabouts now.”

 

Speaking about Ballard, Sunderland boss Le Bris has said: “I speak with the players regularly. It is one of my main tasks. The first one is to create the environment to work together, to give the right direction about the game model and so on. The second one is to be close with the players for their individual project and the place they have in our shareproject.6t.