Régis Le Bris shared a team update before their FA Cup trip to Everton.

Le Bris hasn’t settled on his starting eleven yet. He wants to see how a few players come through training before making a call.

Wilson Isidor, who’s missed the last two games with a minor injury, will rejoin training on Friday morning. There’s a chance he’ll make the squad for Saturday’s early kickoff, but Le Bris isn’t rushing anything. He plans to field a strong team out of respect for the cup, but admits he’ll have to shuffle things around.

“He’s improving,” Le Bris said, talking about Isidor. “He trained with the group this morning, so we’ll see if he’s ready. He’s right on the edge—we don’t want to risk him, so we’ll wait and see. We want to go strong because we respect the competition, but at the same time, some players need their minutes managed. Honestly, with the schedule so packed, every hour matters as we figure out who’s fit.”

Le Bris also needs to decide if any of Sunderland’s returning players from the Africa Cup of Nations can play a role. Noah Sadiki, Arthur Masuaku, Reinildo, and Bertrand Traore are all back, but Le Bris doesn’t expect to have all of them available.

He’s not worried about throwing them straight back in, but he wants to see how they look in training first.

“It’s early—they’ve just returned and haven’t trained yet, so this morning is important to see where everyone’s at,” Le Bris said.

Chances are, not all of them will be ready, but maybe one or two could feature. They bounce back fast—that’s their quality. At this level, you win, you’re happy, you lose, and you move on, because you’re playing again in a couple of days. They’re used to that pace.”

Le Bris also gave an update on Aji Alese and Ahmed Abdullahi. Both are working their way back after long injury spells, but won’t be involved this weekend.

“They’ve had a few setbacks, so we’re being careful,” Le Bris said. “They’re training with the U21S now and will probably get some minutes there. It’s moving in the right direction.”

David Moyes didn’t hold back after Everton lost their appeal over Michael Keane’s red card. Keane got sent off—thanks to a VAR review—for pulling Tolu Arokodare’s hair during an aerial challenge late in the game against Wolves. Everton tried to overturn the decision on Thursday, but the FA panel shot them down. So, Keane’s out for the next three matches.

Everton put out a statement confirming the bad news just before Moyes faced the press ahead of their FA Cup clash with Sunderland. The club said they were “disappointed,” but Moyes went much further. He was furious, especially after watching Gabriel Martinelli get away with just a yellow for shoving an injured Conor Bradley off the pitch during Arsenal’s 0-0 draw with Liverpool the night before.

“Hugely disappointed. Hugely surprised. Honestly, I’m more angry with the panel who thought that was the right call,” Moyes said. “I know exactly who was on that panel. I can’t believe none of them overturned it. Are they calling that violent conduct?

“Last night, you could throw a ball at someone, push them, or even pick up a player who’s clearly hurt, and that’s fine. But Keane accidentally pulls someone’s hair and gets a three-match ban? That’s just bizarre to me.”

Moyes kept going: “He shouldn’t be banned at all. Honestly, I’m embarrassed for whoever’s running VAR. You’ve got a young ref doing maybe his third or fourth game, and VAR dropped him in it with a terrible call.

“What Keane did somehow gets him three games and a red card, but there was another tackle in that game that was much worse, and VAR didn’t even look at it. Feels like they’re getting everything backwards right now.”

He didn’t stop there. On Keane’s situation, Moyes added, “I’m just saying what I think. If I talk too much, they’ll just fine me for speaking out of turn. But if they want us to come on TV and talk, we should at least be able to tell the truth. That’s how I see it.

“Maybe it sounds like I’m saying there’s inconsistency, and honestly, I don’t have a huge issue with that. I just want them to do their jobs as well as possible. But if this is their best, then they’re in trouble.”

The chaos didn’t end with Keane. Jack Grealish also saw red against Rob Edwards’ side—two yellows for dissent in three minutes at the end of the match.

Moyes admitted he originally thought Grealish was out of line for clapping the ref, but then he saw clips of other players doing the same thing and not getting booked.

He said, “I wasn’t going to talk about the other decisions—they’re in the past, and there’s no point. But now that you mention it, I realise there have been a few more calls that went against us recently, and they’re tough to take.

“I thought Grealish was wrong at first, but then I saw other players clap the ref and get away with it—no booking, no sending off. We’ve seen handballs waved away, too. Now that you bring it up, yeah, there have been a few decisions that have definitely gone against Everton.”