Bertrand Traore must wait longer before returning to competition with Sunderland

The Burkina Faso international's recovery will take longer than expected.

Having returned from the Africa Cup of Nations with a knee injury sustained while playing for the Burkina Faso national team, Bertrand Traore will have to wait another two weeks before rejoining his Sunderland teammates.

His return had been announced for this week, but the Burkinabe winger's injury is more serious than first thought. As a result, he will remain sidelined until the end of February, according to Sunderland manager Régis Le Bris.

"Bertrand suffered a significant knee injury and, as far as I know, played the second half of the Africa Cup of Nations round of 16 match with his national team. This may have aggravated his injury. When he returned to Sunderland, the diagnosis was clear: he needed to rest and take care of his knee if he wanted to remain stable until the end of the season, and for the rest of his career as well. So we didn't rush the process and made sure he was properly cared for to ensure that he was fully fit to play again," said Régis Le Bris.