Mundle has completed his recovery from a hamstring injury, and is set to be back in a matchday squad for the first time since early November at Elland Road.
Browne played for the opening 45 minutes of Sunderland Under-21s’ midweek win over Huddersfield Town, with Regis Le Bris now confident the midfielder is ready to return to senior service.
Watson will not be considered for Monday’s game, but the winger will return to full training next week and could be available for the following weekend’s home match with Hull City.
“Romaine is an option for us,” said Le Bris. “We will have to see. We have many players available now, so the selection will be tough. But Romaine should be available. Alan came through the game in the week okay. He is ready to play. Tommy will be back in training next week.”
With Mundle and Watson both absent, Le Bris has been forced to come up with alternative options for Sunderland’s left-hand side.
Adil Aouchiche played a handful of games on the left at the turn of the year, before Enzo Le Fee arrived to make the position his own following a loan move from Roma.
READ MORE:
Le Fee has been a revelation since moving to Wearside, but Le Bris has always felt that his fellow Frenchman would be even better if moved infield to a ‘number ten’ role.
The return of both Mundle and Watson in the next week or so means that is now a much more feasible option, although Le Bris has warned that the duo will need some time to get back up to full speed after enduring lengthy spells on the sidelines.
“Romaine and Tommy are two strong wingers, so it will be good news for us to have them back,” said the Sunderland boss. “But at the same time, they will need a bit of time to recover their level.
“This Championship is very strong and when you’ve missed two, three months – you don’t recover your level straight away. We will be patient and when they are ready, it will give us options.
“With the number ten (position) for example, Riggy (Chris Rigg) is still 17 and he has played so many minutes at an impressive level. This is difficult to maintain, so to have different options will be good.”
Sunderland will be taking on the Championship leaders when they line up against Leeds, with Daniel Farke’s side having stretched their unbeaten Championship run to 14 matches when they thrashed Watford at Vicarage Road in midweek.
The home game at the Stadium of Light ended in the most dramatic of fashions when Ilan Meslier’s stoppage-time howler enabled Sunderland to salvage a 2-2 draw, and Le Bris is looking forward to pitting himself against the division’s pace-setters on Monday.
“They are a very good team,” he said. “They have strong momentum, so it will be an exciting challenge. For us, it’s a really good chance to test our limits. I think we can improve our level against the best opponents, and it will be a very interesting challenge to do that.
“They are probably the best team we have faced so far this season. We started well against them at home, but after that we struggled to press and we had to change our structure to manage that problem. They have many vertical threats, and they are very impressive when they have space to exploit, so they were able to counter-attack and score.
“They have many good players and are doing very well. We will have to face many challenges and problems on the pitch, but for me, that is more of a positive challenge than something we have to be scared of. It is just interesting to play this kind of game.”
