Mick McCarthy revealed last night why Sean Thornton and Jeff Whitley weren’t selected to play against Forest yesterday: they slept in on Saturday morning.
The duo room together on away trips and it seems that both slept in and missed the bus to take the squad to a 10am pre-match training session on Saturday morning, and McCarthy decided that their ‘punishment’ was non-selection for the match.
McCarthy says the pair will be disciplined by the club, but that will be an end to the matter and they will both be available for selection for Wednesday evening’s match against Mansfield.
The gaffer said “There was a power cut in the hotel last night and they didn’t get the alarm calls they’d booked and slept in – but that is no excuse for me. We got on the bus today for training at 10am and I was two players short, they weren’t there so they weren’t going to be involved.
“It’s finished with now, it’s done…they will be involved in the next game at Mansfield.”
And Mick elaborated on why he didn’t pick Kevin Phillips for yesterday’s squad. “He’s been talking to Southampton this week and I don’t think his head is right to be playing for Sunderland.
“I’ve said that to him, if the deal is not right let him stay here and play and score goals – we’ll sell somebody else.
But McCarthy wasn’t quite so forthcoming about mis-fit striker Tore Andre Flo, who has again been told by the boss of the Norwegian national team that he needs to play first-team football to keep his international spot. “With Flo I don’t know, if he is playing well and scoring goals he could get his opportunity.
“Proctor and Kyle are going to be given a chance here.”
