Regis Le Bris will be well aware that he will need to utilise his full Sunderland squad this season as the long 38-game marathon that is the Premier League campaign becomes more and more gruelling.
Thankfully, it’s clear looking at the Frenchman’s options that he has significant depth, with new signing Brian Brobbey waiting in the wings, ready to leave a lasting impression, having found his first-team minutes to be reduced so far as Wilson Isidor regularly leads the line instead.
Moreover, with Habib Diarra already out with a serious knock, and now Noah Sadiki looking to be sidelined in the middle of the park, Le Bris will have to use his full squad to patch up these unfortunate injury issues.
Even without a pile of injury concerns to contend with, the ex-Lorient manager will also be prepared to chop and change his starting XIs for freshness reasons, with Luke O’Nien no doubt keen to be in his boss’s first-team plans again, after sadly sliding down the pecking order this summer.
Why O'Nien's minutes have dried up at Sunderland
When heading up to the Premier League, you would be hard-pressed to find someone who was beloved as the 30-year-old warrior.
O’Nien has been on quite the journey with the Black Cats, with a staggering 314 appearances and counting for the Wearside outfit, lifting him from the doldrums of League One to the promised land of English football.
49 of those appearances came just last season as Le Bris and Co dramatically returned to the top-flight via the tricky playoff route, with O’Nien routinely putting his body on the line to ensure more and more second-tier victories were collected, as seen in him winning 3.9 duels per game in the Championship.
Yet, as he alluded to in the clip above, Sunderland have strengthened all across the pitch this summer to try and ensure they were ready for the intense heat of the top division, with the full-blooded number 13 regrettably seeing his first-team minutes completely dry up as a result.
Both Nordi Mukiele and Omar Alderete have ended up walking into Le Bris’ side to form a solid, top-flight-ready, defensive unit, leading to only six goals being surrendered in league action so far.
O’Nien has simply become a bench option; consequently, with the 30-year-old now potentially on borrowed time as a regular at Sunderland, considering his contract is set to expire in 2027.
He isn’t the only member of Le Bris’ camp fearful for their short-term future, however.
Sunderland "leader" is now on borrowed time under Le Bris
Sadiki sustaining an ankle injury on international duty with DR Congo will be unwelcome news for Le Bris to wrestle with, considering the 20-year-old has been one of the Premier League newcomers’ star performers in the infancy of this new season, away from the likes of Granit Xhaka, Mukiele and Alderete.
That could well be a lifeline for Dan Neil’s waning Stadium of Light career, though, with the no-nonsense 23-year-old another victim – like O’Nien – of wholesale changes on the pitch this summer.
25/26
91
24/25
4285
23/24
3833
22/23
4001
21/22
3275
20/21
407
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1
Neil was once seen in the same breath as the likes of Chris Rigg and Jobe Bellingham on Wearside, with the homegrown product going on to become a certain starter after rising up the academy ranks.
He would even go on to be named as Sunderland’s captain in 2024, with Sunderland U21s star Harrison Jones also hailing him as a “proper leader” for helping him to remain calm on a rare outing in the senior side.
Yet, despite playing 48 games last season for Le Bris’ eventual promotion winners and being so highly regarded by his peers, he has just a paltry minute of Premier League action next to his name this campaign.
Neil might well be eyeing up the exit door; therefore, with Sunderland left even more up in the air as to what to do with their South Shields-born battler, considering his current contract runs out next June.
With a fierce effort up his sleeve like that strike against Middlesbrough last season, Neil might well come in shortly and show Le Bris what he’s been missing out on if he’s seen as a like-for-like stand-in for the tenacious Sadiki.
But, if he fails to pick up the pieces, it does feel as if his Black Cats playing days could have run their natural course, with Sunderland then either looking to cash in on January, or just having to accept their role as disappointed witnesses to him walking away this summer for nothing.
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