Seelt was sidelined for more than six months after suffering a cruciate-ligament injury last March, so it was perhaps understandable that the Dutch defender needed a bit of time to rediscover his rhythm.
While he returned to full training in December, Seelt has not featured with the first team this season and he was not part of the matchday squad for Saturday’s home defeat to Hull City.
The same is true of Abdullahi, who was diagnosed with a groin issue after joining Sunderland from Belgian club Gent in the summer. The 20-year-old underwent surgery shortly after moving to Wearside, and while he has made an impact with the Under-21s in the last month or so, scoring a hat-trick in a recent win over Huddersfield Town, he is yet to make his senior Black Cats debut.
Le Bris has been reluctant to turn to either player while they have been striving for top form, but he has seen signs on the training ground to suggest they might not be far away from being genuine contenders for a matchday spot.
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“It is different with each player,” said the Sunderland boss, who will be hoping for a positive injury update on Dan Ballard and Enzo Le Fee this week after the duo both suffered hamstring problems in Saturday’s loss. “Sometimes, it’s not an overload, but when you recover after a long injury it is not easy to find the rhythm of the team and it’s still difficult to be connected with the dynamic of the team.
“You have to manage these different curves for each player. For different reasons, they have not been able to connect. I hope now that we will have these players fully available and with us, but so far it was not the case.”
Sunderland return to action on Friday evening when they head to Hillsborough to take on a Sheffield Wednesday side that are 12th in the table, six points adrift of the play-off places, after failing to win any of their last four home games.
