Phil Smith brings you the latest Sunderland AFC injury and transfer news from the pre-season tour of Spain
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00:00Hi everyone, Phil here speaking to you from Spain. I'm in Alicante where I'm covering
00:14Sunderland's pre-season tour. I'll be bringing you full coverage from the game against Nottingham
00:18Forest on Friday evening and against Al Dents on Sunday evening. I'll be doing your typical
00:24on the whistle videos after both of those games so keep your eye out on Twitter during
00:28the game after the game. I'll put my usual call out for questions and we'll discuss the
00:31game, who's impressed, what happened, any breaking news, all that kind of stuff. But
00:35what I also thought I'd do while I'm out here is I'd try and bring you a bit of insight
00:38as to what's going on and also just cover off some of the main news in some kind of
00:43daily update videos. So, a few things to talk about today. The big news which actually broke
00:48yesterday evening is that Dan Ballard's not here in Spain with the group. Ballard obviously
00:52one of the key players in this team really and someone who I think would have been absolute
00:57certainty to start on the opening day of the season against Cardiff. Ballard picked
01:01up an injury against South Shields in that opening friendly of the pre-season programme.
01:05He went to see a specialist with Sunderland hoping it wasn't that serious. It's not hugely
01:09serious but it's pretty serious and he ended up undergoing minor surgery. That means he'll
01:13be out for up to six weeks. Obviously we don't know exactly how long he'll be out for, that'll
01:17depend on his rehab, how quickly he can recover, all those sorts of things. But what we can
01:21say with some certainty is he's not going to play a part in the pre-season programme
01:24and that means he's not going to be fit, you would assume, to face Cardiff on the opening
01:28day of the season. Probably the three or four games after that. I think that brings a really
01:33interesting dynamic to what's going to happen in these two games over the weekend because
01:39although Ballard and 0-9 I think are pretty much inked in as the start and centre half
01:43partnership for the new season when Ballard's fit, there isn't a huge amount of depth there
01:47at the moment for a few reasons. Jenson Seale too impressed last season. He's out here in
01:52Spain but he's a long way off making a recovery yet. He's certainly not going to be fit to
01:55start the season. Nectar Triantis is also out here in Spain but he missed the friendlies
02:00at the weekend. He's got an injury as well. So I think what this basically means is there's
02:03a big opportunity here for Leo Yelder and Adge Ulise over these two friendlies over
02:09the weekend where I'd expect both of them to play centre half at some point. Now obviously
02:13we all know about Ulise's talent. We all know that he finished the season really well and
02:17that's a huge boost to something going forward. But he arrived at the club as a centre half
02:22primarily. He's ended up playing mostly at left back and he's done brilliantly well and
02:25I think most Southern fans would be really happy if Ulise had played at left back for
02:28much of the season. But of course you've got Denis Sirkin in who's also shown a huge amount
02:32of potential and is fit again which is a major boost. I wonder if Ulise has got an opportunity
02:38here with Ballard's injury to put his hand up to try and make that centre half spot his
02:42own. I think that's potentially a really exciting prospect for fans although it's a blow to
02:46lose Ballard to potentially get Ulise and Sirkin in the same team. Especially as Red
02:51East Labrice moves towards a very high press in style, that's going to demand a high line
02:56and that pace could be really vital that both of those bring. The other contender really
03:00is Leo Yelder as I mentioned. Yelder I think had an inconsistent start with Southern Korea
03:05but to be fair I think you would expect that given that A. he was in a team struggling
03:09for confidence, struggling for fluidity, struggling for form. He also made pretty clear when he
03:14arrived that he saw himself as a centre half first and foremost. Now he's not had a chance
03:17to show what he can do in that position at all. Big opportunity for him coming over the
03:22pre-season programme to really put himself in contention. Joe Anderson is also here.
03:27Joe Anderson who joined from Everton about 18 months ago but was on loan at Shrewsbury
03:30last season, had a decent season there. He'll be open to put his hand up. Though he did
03:34play left back in the opening friendlies which maybe suggests that he's not in contention
03:38at the moment for a start and berth in the Championship but we'll see how that develops.
03:42So that's a really interesting one to watch. Will someone feel that they need to go back
03:45into the transfer market or will they see the options in this camp and in these games
03:50that actually they've got enough to get through that first month, five week period and then
03:53be ready for when Ballard returns. The other big news really is transfers and actually
03:58at the moment mostly outgoing transfers. There's been a kind of flurry of headlines in recent
04:03days about the number of players who could or could not be leaving and actually a lot
04:08of the players who are here in camp have been linked with moves in recent days so the big
04:11one is Trey Hulme who's been linked with a number of clubs over the course of the summer.
04:15I think it's fair to say that given his defensive attributes, his age and how quickly he's progressed,
04:19there are loads of clubs tracking Trey Hulme. Now there had been reports that Galatasaray
04:24had submitted a bid for him. My understanding is that although there may be interest, the
04:28club aren't aware of it formally yet and there's certainly been no bid. Similarly Pierre Equa
04:33has been linked with a move to Udinese by Fabrizio Romano. My understanding is that's
04:37absolutely true. Sunderland are aware of interest from Udinese and Pierre Equa. There's
04:42definitely been contact. My understanding is at the moment the kind of fees that have
04:48been talked about or the kind of proposal that's been made is a long, long way from
04:51what Sunderland would consider a viable option and a viable bid. You've got to remember that
04:56Sunderland turned down some pretty significant bids for Pierre Equa last deadline day in
05:00the summer. Now he had a little bit of an inconsistent season I think last time out
05:03but it was his first full season in professional football. So I think that's something we're
05:07anticipating some ups and downs as he adjusted to playing sort of three times a week in the
05:11championship environment. So that's definitely one to watch. But I think the strong theme
05:15coming out of the camp and coming out of the club at the moment is, listen, we've proven
05:19over the last three or four windows that we won't just let players go for a pittance.
05:23We're not in the habit of selling players unless the bid's huge. We want to keep the
05:27core of this team together. So although at the moment it feels a little bit tense because
05:30there's so much discussion about players and there's so many reports of interest, at
05:34the moment there's actually been very, very few bids, formal bids, and some of them are
05:38pretty confident. The thing that they keep stressing is most of these players, in fact
05:42pretty much all these players who've been linked with moves away, Trey Hulme, Pierre
05:45Equa, Anthony Patterson, you name them, they're all under long-term contracts and the club
05:49are under no financial pressure to sell this window. So I feel really strongly that the
05:54team on the first day of the season is going to be a very familiar one, hopefully with
05:58some more additions, exciting additions, but I don't envisage any significant sales
06:03and that's certainly the message at the moment amid this flurry of reports. And one thing
06:06that I would mention as well is that some of them have already fought off pretty significant
06:09interest in Jobe Bellingham. If they were looking to sell a player this summer, they
06:13could already have done that. They could have made a huge profit from Crystal Palace or
06:16any of the other top-tier clubs tracking Jobe, but they've had a discussion, they've said
06:20they want to keep him, they want to be ambitious, and as it stands, he's very, very happy to
06:24this day and he said that he's kind of signed up for the season and excited about it. So
06:28I would take, obviously, there's no doubt with all the talent in the squad, there's
06:32going to be loads of interest and I think more bids will arrive at some stage, but I
06:36think generally the view is that the core of this team for the season is in place and
06:39that some of them are really keen to keep them all. There's obviously the Jack Clarke
06:43question, that's a slightly different one because of his contractual situation. He's
06:46got two years left and obviously if he's not going to sign a new deal, then there's always
06:51a chance that a big bid could force someone to sell rather than let him run his contract
06:55down. Having said that, one thing that's something that I feel very clear is that at the end
07:00of the day, if Clarke stays front of the air and someone gets promoted, the kind of financial
07:04reward that will bring far outstrips what they would make from a sale now. So even that
07:08isn't a foregone conclusion. So I think that's kind of been the big talking points the last
07:12few days and so far from the pre-season to it, but I think that my prediction, as I've
07:18said, would very much be that I think the core of the team will stay in place for the
07:22start of the season. If someone don't get promoted next year, then maybe we're having
07:26a different conversation. Maybe some of these players will be a bit more keen to step up
07:29and move on, but I don't envisage it at this stage. I'll be back in the next couple of
07:33days with hopefully a few more updates. I'll start looking ahead a little bit to the Nottingham
07:37Forest fixture, which is already happening, which obviously is happening on Friday and
07:42maybe we'll have a bit of preview and look at some team news for that. But I hope you've
07:44enjoyed this update. I hope it's been a little bit insightful. As I say, keep your eye out
07:48for all of our coverage from the matches. Keep an eye out on my Twitter and the Echo
07:51Twitter on Friday and Sunday because I'll be putting a call out for your usual On The
07:55Whistle questions. So if you're watching the game and you've got a question, or if you're
07:58not watching the game, you've got some questions, fire them in then. Cheers for watching.