Both Mundle and Alese have been sidelined for more than a month, with the former having suffered a serious hamstring injury and the latter having missed most of the second half of the season after fracturing a bone in his leg in January.
The duo have returned to training in the last fortnight, but were not involved in the final game of the regular Championship season against QPR at the weekend.
As a result, Regis Le Bris is reluctant to ask too much of them at the CBS Arena on Friday, so even though they could find themselves on the substitutes’ bench, their involvement in the first leg is expected to be extremely limited. The hope is that Mundle, in particular, should be capable of playing a more central role in Tuesday’s return game at the Stadium of Light.
“We don’t really have everyone available, because I think the time will be a bit short for Romaine and Aji to be involved in the first leg,” said the Sunderland boss. “But apart from that, it is the full squad. We’re looking more at Romaine being involved on Tuesday night than for Friday.”
With Mundle unlikely to start in the first leg, Enzo Le Fee is likely to line up on the left-hand side of Sunderland’s attack even though his preferred position is in a more central role.
Le Fee started on the left-hand side in last weekend’s defeat to QPR, and is expected to get the nod ahead of Tommy Watson, who is set for a substitutes’ role.
Le Bris two main selections decisions come at the heart of the back four, where he must decide whether to restore Dan Ballard to the starting line-up after his 30-minute substitute run-out last Saturday, and in attack, where Wilson Isidor and Eliezer Mayenda are competing for one starting spot.
“It is not really going to be difficult (to make the decisions) because we are all involved in the same objective,” said Le Bris. “We know that, if we have different options to face different challenges, away and home, and hopefully over three games, then that is good.
“We will need everyone. This squad and these players are proud of what they have done so far. It is clear that we played as a team and a strong unit, even though we played with a different starting XI and different subs. They were always ready to face the different challenges, and it was always as a group.
“Some of them will be disappointed for the first leg, maybe, but after that, they can switch on really quickly.”
