Chris Coleman will be doing everything he can to keep his players in peak condition over the festive period.
With three matches in seven days, Sunderland head to Sheffield United on Boxing Day for the first of two away matches before returning to Wearside on New Year’s Day for a home match against Barnsley.
Having kept back-to-back clean sheets on the road in recent weeks, Coleman’s Black Cats stretched their unbeaten run to three games on Saturday when they secured a point against Birmingham City.
But with little time to dwell on Sunderland’s last performance at the Stadium of Light in 2017, Coleman has insisted his players must continue to give everything to the cause and ensure the Blues point becomes a positive one with Sheffield United up next.
“We have to remain positive, results are going to go with us and against us until the end of the season,” he said.
“We have got such a busy period and we are so stretched in terms of numbers.
“With 20 minutes to go Darron Gibson, who has been playing really well for us, has got a long-term groin problem that we need to make sure we stay on top of.
“He has had a tough week, so we don’t want to risk him because we have got such a busy period coming up.
“We are still without Paddy McNair and Lee Cattermole is out for a month so holding midfield players at this club are scarce.
“It is good to see Didier (Ndong) coming back but we can’t risk him playing any longer than what he did,” he continued.
“But it is such a busy period, we need to make sure we look after everyone because there are lots of points available in this festive period.
“It was an ugly performance against Birmingham, but we got something. We got something, rather than nothing.
“It is something to hold onto, something to build on.
“We have got to look at what we have got, it was a great effort last week, we didn’t capitalise on it against Birmingham as we wanted to, but we have got to make sure we have a recount to make sure we are ready for the trip to Sheffield.”
