Mike Dodds explains when Patrick Roberts will be able to give 'huge boost' to Sunderland

Sunderland are struggling for positivity right now, and they wont get any from a Patrick Roberts return any time soon either

Patrick Roberts is still ‘a few weeks’ away from returning to the Sunderland side, says head coach Mike Dodds.

Roberts is having a poor season in truth, contributing no goals and just one assist so far.

However, he remains one of Sunderland’s biggest attacking threats, and his ball-carrying skills have been a miss on the righthand side.

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He is currently out with a hamstring problem and, apparently, nowhere near a return as of yet.

"Yeah, Pat is stepping up his rehab but he's not out on the grass as of yet," Dodds said.

"So there's still a few more weeks there, he hasn't really come into my though processes yet but of course, he'll be a huge boost in terms of what we're trying to do."

Two players who are seemingly closer to a return are Bradley Dack and Aji Alese.

Dack has been missing since Boxing Day with a hamstring problem while Alese has struggled for games generally for a year now due to a variety of different injuries.

Both are back in training, but Dodds says the club are taking a cautious approach with both for now.

"With Bradley and Aji, the next step is to integrate them into full training," Dodds said.

"At the moment they are in and out of the group depending on what we have planned, we just have to be a bit careful in terms of full contact and things like that. So I'd say they're semi-integrated at the moment.