John O’Shea and Seb Larsson will make their first appearances of pre-season when Sunderland take on Montpellier HSC on Saturday.
The duo returned to training earlier this week following an extended break due to their Euro 2016 exploits, with O’Shea featuring in the knockout stages as Republic of Ireland upset the odds and emerged from a tough group.
Larsson and Sweden were unfortunate not to progress, but both players are now focussed on the 2016-17 Premier League season with Robbie Stockdale revealing their first appearances of the campaign will come this weekend.
“John and Seb joined the squad on Sunday and the plan is to get them some minutes on Saturday against Montpellier.
“Both players are naturally fit but with summer tournaments and a later return date the recovery process is as important as the work period, so they’ve had three days with the sports science department and then three days with the team before playing on Saturday."
He added: “Jan Kirchhoff will feel better for the 90 minutes and although he huffed and puffed towards the end we kept him on.
“I think it will be a psychological boost for him to have completed the game.”
