00:00Hi folks, Phil here, been speaking to Regis Labrice for his pre-Chelsea press conference at the Academy Alight this afternoon,
00:06but it was way too cold and wet to take the video in front of the cool Sunderland sign outside, so you'll have to make do with this instead.
00:11The big headline really was that Omar Alderete is out this Saturday, so he suffered a concussion during the game last week,
00:17and he now obviously has to go through the concussion protocols.
00:20He's been assessed daily, Sunderland at this stage hopefully will be back for the Everton game at the Stadium Alight a week on Monday,
00:25but that does remain to be seen. He's definitely out this weekend, and that kind of really gave an easy answer to one of the big questions
00:32coming into the press conference in the weekend's game, which is whether Labrice would kind of trust and be happy to bring Ray Nildo back into the starting XI,
00:39or whether he'd kind of have to wait his opportunity. Labrice spoke about how well Ray Nildo had trained in the last couple of weeks,
00:46how well he kind of responded to the disappointment of that red card against Aston Villa,
00:50mentioned that his match fitness is really good, having featured for Mozambique over the international break,
00:54and I think it's pretty clear that Ray Nildo's going to come straight back into the starting XI.
00:58Of course, there is a question there about whether Gertroida comes in as well, and someone's switched to a back five.
01:02We'll have to wait and see on that one, but I think it's pretty obvious that it's going to be three of the back ball from last week,
01:07plus Ray Nildo, so that was kind of the big headline.
01:10The good news was that Noah Siddiqui, who obviously has been managing that ankle injury,
01:14I think we were all a little bit nervous when he went down during stoppage time last week,
01:18and looked like he was in a bit of discomfort. He eventually came off a course.
01:21He's trained fully this week, doesn't seem to be any kind of longer-term issues with that ankle
01:26from last week and from the international break, so he's fit, and he's ready, and he's available,
01:30which obviously he's going to have a massive power play at Stamford Bridge, so that's good news.
01:34The other really nice bit of news, which you can read the full quotes on the Sundeca website on Friday morning,
01:38so if you're watching this then, you can go and read all about it.
01:40So, I mean, Mendel's really close to a comeback.
01:43He had his final meeting with a specialist after that hamstring injury,
01:46and the specialist gave him the green light so he can now get fully up to speed.
01:49Realistically, given the amount of time he's been out, it's going to take a couple of weeks,
01:53and so I think it's probably unlikely we'll see him before the November international break,
01:57but obviously leading into AFCON, when Mendel's going to have a big part,
02:00when Sundean lose quite a few wingers, that's a really, really encouraging sign.
02:03So, yeah, mixed news.
02:05As you expect, Le Brice is really complimentary about Chelsea, about their quality,
02:09and not shine away from how big a test this is,
02:12but I think, as everyone's seen, Sundean have shown they can be competitive everywhere this season,
02:17so I think they'll go to Stamford Bridge full of confidence.
02:19Loads of kind of analysis I'll have for you over the weekend from Stamford Bridge,
02:23so keep an eye out for that, and obviously another episode of On The Whistle,
02:26but there you go.
02:26There's your key headlines in a couple of minutes.
02:29We're going to add them to this.
02:37We'll see you next time.
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