Tony Mowbray made three changes to the Sunderland side that started the win at Birmingham City before the World Cup break. The Black Cats resumed their Championship campaign against Millwall at the Stadium of Light and Luke O'Nien, Lynden Gooch, and Aji Alese, returned to the side.
O'Nien had sat out the game at St Andrew's due to suspension after accumulating five yellow cards, but Gooch and Alese came back into the starting XI after both had recovered from foot injuries which had ruled them out since mid-October. They replaced Bailey Wright, who is on World Cup duty with Australia, Trai Hume, who dropped to the bench, and Niall Huggins, who dropped out of the matchday squad altogether.
Dennis Cirkin had missed recent games through injury but Mowbray included him amongst the subs, but there was no place in the squad for Ross Stewart with Mowbray having said beforehand that even including him on the bench would have been 'a gamble'. Millwall boss Gary Rowett named the same side that started the 4-2 win at Preston North End last month, ahead of the World Cup break.
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That meant former Sunderland captain, and academy product, George Honeyman started in midfield for the Lions. Here's how the Black Cats line up today. You can follow the match as it happens in our live blog here.
Today's teams
Sunderland: Patterson, Gooch, O'Nien, Batth, Alese, Evans, Neil, Amad, Pritchard, Clarke, Simms
Subs: Bass, Hume, Cirkin, Roberts, Embleton, Dajaku, Ba
Millwall: Long, McNamara, Cresswell, Cooper, Wallace, Mitchell, Saville, Voglsammer, Flemming, Honeyman, Bradshaw
Subs: Bialkowski, Hutchinson, Evans, Malone, Shackleton, Styles, Bennett
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