DAN BALLARD and Eliezer Mayenda have both been ruled out of Sunderland’s game at Luton Town tomorrow evening.

The pair have both been sidelined for a number of weeks through injury, but Regis Le Bris had hinted in the wake of Sunday’s win at Hull City that they had a chance of being involved at Kenilworth Road.

However, after being reassessed in the last 24 hours, neither player will be part of the squad that travels to Luton, and they are also unlikely to feature in Saturday’s home game with Oxford United.

“We won’t have either of the two players for the Luton game,” confirmed Le Bris, whose side returned to the top of the table when they won at the MKM Stadium at the weekend. “They are not far away, but they won’t be able to play this week.

“Eliezer is training. He has trained this week. The Oxford game might come a little bit too soon for him because it was a muscle injury so he needs a bit of time, but he should be available after that. For Ballard, it should be next week when he is able to get back up to full speed.”

Aaron Connolly made his debut from the substitutes’ bench during the second half of the win over Hull, and the Irishman will be hoping to force his way into the starting line-up over the course of the next few games.

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Wilson Isidor will be hard to dislodge, having scored three goals in his last four games, but Le Bris sees no reason why the pair cannot feature together in the starting side.

Isidor was playing in a wide-attacking role prior to being moved up front when Mayenda suffered his injury and, at some stage, the Zenit St Petersburg loanee could be switched back to the flanks in order to create an opening for Connolly.

“We have another option in attack now with Aaron,” said Le Bris. “We have a number of ways we can play.

“We know that Wilson is versatile – he can play on the right or the left side as well. It could be an option (to play both together) because we have a lot of games coming up and a lot of different challenges. It is good for us to have those options.”