Regis Le Bris shares Habib Diarra AFCON reveal in Sunderland injury update
Habib Diarra’s availability for AFCON had been in major doubt due to his injury issues at Sunderland.
Sunderland are heading to the AMEX to take on Brighton in the Premier League this weekend and Diarra is set to be unexpectedly in the squad.
Regis Le Bris’ side have been named underdogs to beat Brighton, despite the fact Sunderland are on a high after beating Newcastle in the Wear-Tyne derby last weekend.
However, Sunderland are also now without a host of key players due to AFCON, and they may be about to receive a further blow in that regard.
Regis Le Bris drops AFCON plan for Sunderland star Habib Diarra
Signed from Strasbourg this summer for a fee worth around £30million, Diarra’s start to life as a Sunderland player took a cruel twist.
The 21-year-old midfielder suffered an injury in training just days after he played the full 90 minutes in a 0-0 draw away at Crystal Palace on 13 September, and he hasn’t kicked a ball in anger since.
As such, there was a totally understandable amount of selfish hope building from a Sunderland perspective that Diarra may be forced to miss AFCON, and could instead return to fitness and return for the Black Cats while the tournament is going on.
However, as reported by the Sunderland Echo, Le Bris has revealed that Diarra is set to take his place on the bench this weekend for the trip to Brighton.
But, he doesn’t appear to be staying on Wearside, as he’s then expected to leave to join up with the Senegal team for AFCON after all.
“He might be with us for Brighton and then it will be end of his rehab process. If it’s all positive, he will be to leave for his national team [next week],” said Le Bris.
Sunderland may need to call on frozen out Championship promotion stalwarts
As a consequence of a pair of quality additions in Granit Xhaka and Noah Sadiki, Chris Rigg and Dan Neil have largely been out in the Stadium of Light cold so far this season.
The duo both played integral starting roles in Le Bris’ Championship play-off final-winning team last season, but have each found minutes extremely hard to come by in the Premier League so far.
- Habib Diarra has played just 347 minutes of Premier League football since joining Sunderland this summer
- Sunderland haven’t played Brighton in a competitive fixture since August 2011
- The Seagulls defeated the Black Cats with a 1-0 extra-time win in the League Cup that day
However, that may now be forced to change, as Sadiki and Diarra both head for AFCON, meaning at least one of Rigg or Neil will surely have to come into the starting lineup over the next few weeks.
As such, this could be a real watershed moment in the career’s of both players, as Neil had been strongly linked with a Sunderland exit in January.
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