REGIS Le Bris doesn't think Sunderland will have much work to do in the January transfer window, with the head coach relishing his squad being boosted by the return of injured players rather than new signings.

Le Bris didn't rule out incomings in the winter window, with Black Cats bosses assessing potential targets and weighing up their plan as January approaches.

But the head coach doesn't think there are any obvious areas of priority as things stand - and expects his squad to be boosted by several returning players in the coming weeks.

Midfielder Salis Abdul Sahmed has endured a rotten few months with injuries since his summer arrival but, as things stand, is expected to be ready to feature at some stage in December, while striker Ahmed Abdullahi won't be too far behind. He had groin surgery shortly after joining the Black Cats.

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Ian Poveda is another summer signing who is yet to hit his stride on Wearside, but Le Bris still has high hopes for the forward, while the head coach was also thrilled with the way Eliezer Mayenda and Aaron Connolly adapted to new attacking roles at Millwall on Saturday.

Providing there are no further injury setbacks in the coming weeks, Le Bris thinks he'll have depth and options across the pitch come the start of the winter window.

He said: "At the minute, we are still finding new players in new positions in our team.

"As I said before, like Aaron as a 10 and Eliezer as an 11 on Saturday. Salis will be back soon [in December], Ahmed and Ian too.

"So we will probably have three or four more players [by the time the January window opens], so I don't know how much will we need right now. The focus for me and the staff is to enjoy the players that we have here.

"There are a lot of strengths in the squad, even if some have been injured. We could have a lot of players in a lot of positions [if they recover from injury]."