Victor Anichebe thinks that Sunderland’s stuttering campaign in the English Premier League this season is due to a high number of injuries and not because the team lack quality.
The big forward returned from a three-month injury spell in the Black Cats’ 3-0 home defeat against Manchester United on Sunday.
Lee Cattermole, Jan Kirchhoff, Duncan Watmore, Paddy McNair, Fabio Borini, Seb Larsson, Vito Mannone, Jordan Pickford, Jack Rodwell, and Steven Pienaar have all being on the sidelines for extended spells at various times.
“I swear it’s not a bad group of guys, the quality is there there’s just no confidence,” Anichebe told Chronicle Live.
“The thing is that around November and December, we were doing well, but injuries came in, I got injured, players that we thought were coming back didn’t do so.
“I think we’ve had the most injuries in the league. It’s just been stop-start, stop-start. “These aren’t excuses, even if I’m out someone should come in and fill in, but it’s been difficult.
“We need to just keep fighting, that’s the basis of what we have to do.”
Against the Red Devils, he was handed a starter’s shirt and Anichebe claimed he was willing to play despite not having enough training time.
“It’s going to take me a couple of games, I wish I had time, or we had time, but we don’t,’’ he continued.
“I haven’t trained much but I wanted to come in and help if I could, today’s not a good day, it’s a disappointing day, we haven’t had a good week.
“I feel OK, you could see I wasn’t where I was at when I got injured, where I would like to be.’’
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