Sunderland squad scheduled to return to training

The Sunderland squad was scheduled to return to training yesterday at the Academy of Light, however, the planned trip to Accrington Stanley on Tuesday night was postponed early in the day due to the Covid-19 outbreak at the club.

The club had shut its training base for 10 days with players isolating and training at home following the recent C ovid -19 outbreak.

There has been a total of 13 cases but the positive results were staggered over a few days so a return to training will be phased anyway and it also obviously depends on the health and fitness of the individual players too.

The club said last week that the squad was scheduled to return to training on Sunday.

Head coach Lee Johnson last week outlined the various issues the club is having to contend with though.

When asked about the Stanley game, speaking last week, he said: “[The Accrington game] It depends on when we get back to action.

"First and foremost, our three goalkeepers have all tested positive.

"So that leaves us in a bit of a pick le, depending on how we recover.

"One in particular has struggled quite a lot and the health and wellbeing of a player has to be at the front of any decision that is made.

"We've also got four senior players who are only able to come out of their isolation on the matchday of the 29th.

"So th e re's no way they can prepare or train, other than that at home.

“We've had to give them online sessions to do on zoom, which has been interesting and actually really good.

"But we've also done a lot of tactical work online as well, presented some slides just to see what their understanding is of the terminology and what we're trying to coach.

"I've been very impressed with the players on that front.

"It's going to be a very difficult period for us in terms of trying to gain any kind of consistency, but at the same time, we're doing everything in our control to try and achieve that."

Sunderland had postponed three games due to the C ovid -19 outbreak including the away game at Shrewsbury Town and home double-header against Blackpool and Hull City.