Having picked up four yellow cards in his first six games this season, a fifth caution and a suspension for Trai Hume seemed inevitable.
And yet the full-back has so far managed to avoid the booking that would result in a one-match ban.
Hume, as crucial as any player for Sunderland, has now gone seven games without picking up a yellow card, to the delight, relief, and slight surprise of his head coach, Regis Le Bris.
He still has another six games to negotiate before the suspension cut-off after 19 Championship fixtures, but Le Bris has praised his right-back for how he’s dealt with a delicate and difficult situation.
And that’s something Le Bris suggests he didn’t think he’d be saying at the start of November when Hume picked up his fourth yellow—and it could very easily have been a red—for a bad tackle on Middlesbrough’s Emmanuel Latte Lath back in September.
“You can see when a player has to manage a new condition, he can change his behaviour,” said Le Bris, as Hume looks to move another game closer to the suspension cut-off when the Black Cats face Preston at Deepdale tonight.
“He was very intense, probably too much. I remember the situation at home a big tackle very early in the game. It was a yellow, probably a red card.
“He didn’t play like that later. He’s managed the situation very well. It’s good for him; it’s making him think differently and he’s improving his behaviour. I’m very happy.”
Hume isn’t alone in walking the disciplinary tightrope. Chris Rigg and Patrick Roberts are both one yellow card away from having to sit a game out and Jobe Bellingham will be in the same situation when he returns from his three-game ban that follows his sending off at QPR at the weekend.
All of the above are key players for Sunderland and Le Bris is obviously hoping they all manage to avoid another caution before the Black Cats host Bristol City in December in what is their 20th fixture.
But he also has to plan for the possibility of needing to make a change. He’s previously admitted he’d likely move Luke O’Nien over to right-back if Hume had to serve a suspension, while Zak Johnson was also used in that role in the summer.
He said: “We know we have many players with four yellow cards. We don’t know when it will happen.
“Trai has managed six games in a row without getting a yellow card and maybe he will last. But Dan [Ballard] is ready, which is good for us.”
