REGIS Le Bris has stressed the need for "care" with summer signing Salis Abdul Samed and outlined the Sunderland midfielder's situation after his return from injury was delayed by at least a further month.

Samed joined on loan from Lens on deadline day but is yet to be involved for the Black Cats.

Le Bris has now revealed that Samed joined Sunderland with an injury that he suffered in one of his final sessions at Lens and that problem turned out to be worse than first anticipated.

The 24-year-old then suffered a recurrence of the injury, which is why Le Bris is so keen to play the long game with Samed, who is now not expected to feature before the November international break.

By that stage Sunderland will be a third of the way through the Championship season, but Le Bris insists Samed can still "make on impact" on Wearside.

But for that to be the case, the head coach will only include the midfielder when he knows he's fully fit and ready and won't risk rushing him back too soon.

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"Salis picked up an injury at Lens in one of his last sessions there," explained Le Bris.

"He kicked the ball and felt a pain. The first assessment was not completely accurate so we had to reassess it later.

"He then suffered a recurrence in the same muscle and then it becomes very difficult to take a risk.

"For the first time [it's possible] because you are still young but the second time, you need to be very careful. So if he feels sore, we need to reduce the load and to take time to avoid another recurrence - because it is the worst scenario for everyone.

"This is the position we are in. There will be time for him to make an impact.

"It opens the options for others, so we take care of the injured players and focus on those who are [available], and at the moment they are good."