TONY MOWBRAY has confirmed his plans for Sunderland’s opening pre-season friendlies this weekend, with the first-team squad set to be split between the games at South Shields and Gateshead.

Sunderland take on South Shields, newly promoted to National League North, on Saturday lunchtime (12.30pm), with another game scheduled to take place against Gateshead at the International Stadium later the same day (4pm).

While Mowbray intends to be at both matches with the rest of his backroom team, the playing staff will be split between the two games with separate line-ups containing a combination of first-team players and Under-21s, who will be handed the chance to impress ahead of this month’s US tour.

“For our first competitive fixtures, we’ve got two on the same day against South Shields and Gateshead, and we’ll just mix the teams up,” confirmed Mowbray, who is set to select new signings Jobe Bellingham and Luis Semedo for the first time. “For us, it’s about the fitness really.

“The local teams will want to do well, and there’ll be crowds in, so we will mix the teams up so there’ll be some pretty inexperienced footballers playing alongside some players who will have had lots of football last year. But it’s mainly about getting 90 minutes into their legs.

“The staff will watch both games, because of the timings – one’s late morning and one’s late afternoon – we’ll watch both games. It’s really to get the minutes into the lads’ legs and help the local teams to get their seasons ready in front of a crowd too.”

Sunderland’s players are into their second week of pre-season, although a number of players will not be involved in this weekend’s games.

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Aji Alese, Dennis Cirkin, Corry Evans, Elliot Embleton and Ross Stewart are all unavailable because of injury, along with new signing Jenson Seelt, who is struggling with an ankle issue. Nectarios Triantis and Trai Hume have both been given time off in the wake of their international exertions last month.

After playing in this weekend’s games, Mowbray’s squad will head to the United States for a whistlestop three-game tour that will feature matches against San Antonio, New Mexico United and North Carolina.

Two of those sides play in the US second tier, while North Carolina play in what is effectively the US equivalent of League One, and Mowbray admits he and his players will be stepping somewhat into the unknown once they land Stateside.

“In terms of the games in America, I don’t really know what to expect,” he said, in an interview with Sunderland's official media channels. “I don’t get overly-anxious about these games anyway. We can win 5-0 or we can lose 5-0 and I’ll be judging our team really on their organisation and the way that we’re trying to ask them to play, and their application to doing that.”