Sunderland are entering a vital stretch of their Championship promotion push

Ex-Sunderland defender Darren Williams has expressed his concerns about fatigue creeping into the Black Cats’ squad over the latter stages of the season, highlighting Chris Rigg and Patrick Roberts as two players who have looked particularly “tired” of late.

Regis Le Bris’ side endured a difficult few days last week, losing consecutive matches against Leeds United and Hull City to leave themselves eight points adrift of the top two heading into the final 12 matches of the campaign.

Both Rigg and Roberts started both of those contests, with the pair having emerged as mainstays of Le Bris’ first XI since the Frenchman arrived at the Stadium of Light. For his part, Roberts has featured in 33 of Sunderland’s 34 league outings so far this term, starting on 28 occasions, while teenage sensation Rigg has made the same number of starts, as well as two further substitute appearances, in his first full season since signing a professional contract over the summer.

And as the rigours of a demanding push for promotion threaten to take their toll, Williams has suggested that Sunderland - and especially Rigg and Roberts - are looking notably leggier than they did earlier in the campaign.

Speaking on BBC Radio Newcastle’s Total Sport podcast, the former Black Cats star said: “There have been a few tired bodies on the pitch in the previous two or three games. I’m hopeful that we can turn it around because you can’t continue with tired legs on the pitch.

“I watched the game against Luton and Chris Rigg looked really tired. He’s a great player but you’re asking a lot of a young man to step on the pitch and compete week in and week out. Even Roberts at times. I can’t work out whether he’s tired or it’s just the way he goes about his game.”

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Addressing the question of fatigue in Sunderland’s young squad after the Black Cats’ 1-0 defeat against Hull on Saturday lunchtime, club captain Luke O’Nien said: “I think it's fair to say in my debut season, I remember getting to this kind of stage of the season and, yeah, maybe feeling a little bit heavy-legged. But that's up to us experienced boys to lead their offer of advice and guide and support them. But equally, it's just a 90-minute game of football. It's something that we enjoy.

“And if you win, it's going to come a lot easier. So our job is now to keep winning, create momentum where people, you know, you create energy. And that's going to be my job now going into tomorrow is to create that energy. The hardest bit. It's not down to fatigue or anything like that. It's just teams sitting on a low block and 11 men behind the ball.

“It's hard to break down. You just have to keep finding ways. And we've just got to find more creative ways to break that down, and then when we do take the lead, teams are going to come out of their block, and we've got to exploit that space. So we know what we need to do. It's easier said than done.”

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