Pierre Ekwah 'a yard off' the pace since injury, admits Tony Mowbray

Sunderland boss Tony Mowbray has admitted that Pierre Ekwah is ‘not yet up to speed’ following his return from injury.

Ekwah had grown into a genuine force in the Sunderland midfield at the start of the season and he looked like he was only going to go from strength to strength.

However, he sustained a thigh injury in the 3-1 win at QPR in mid-September that forced him to miss five matches.

He returned in late October in the 2-1 defeat at Stoke, but he has looked well short of his best since despite now playing six consecutive matches.

It is not something that has escaped Mowbray’s attention, and he admitted it was the reason he was hauled off at half-time against Plymouth.

“Pierre had been injured for a few weeks and he has to get up to speed,” Mowbray told BBC Radio Newcastle. “He doesn’t seem to me that he is up to the speed of the team, the way we are trying to play.

“He’s a yard off it in my mind, so he came off.”

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There certainly seems something a little amiss with Pierre Ekwah at the moment, and you have to wonder why he is still off the pace six matches and five weeks after returning from injury.

In terms of performance, there definitely has been a drop off when you look at the statistics from Ekwah’s first five games of season and compare them to his first five since returning.

The Frenchman is usually so careful with the ball and was averaging an impressive 89% pass completion this season before his injury. Since it, that average has dropped markedly to 83%.

That may not look all that much, but in a possession-based team, which Sunderland are now, it is quite a big difference.

It will be interesting to see if Ekwah is taken out of the starting line-up for the visit of Huddersfield on Wednesday given Mowbray’s comments and it is at the stage where it would probably be a surprise if he wasn’t. 

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