Sunderland interim head coach Mike Dodds admits Bradley Dack and Corry Evans' future at the club is yet to be decided and also says he'll play a role in offering his opinion to the Black Cats hierarchy, ahead of any contract talks with players in the final few months of their deals.

Evans, Dack and Ellis Taylor are three members of the first-team squad approaching the end of the current contracts. The former two have just returned from long spells on the sideline with injury but could return to the matchday squad for the clash with Cardiff City this afternoon.

Taylor recently spoke with We Are Sunderland expressing his desire to earn another deal with the Black Cats, but was aware of what the future might hold for him.

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Decisions also need to be made in relation to Mason Burstow and Callum Styles' future at the club, with both loanees set to leave the club at the end of the season. With eight games to go, Sunderland hold the option of making the Hungarian's move to Wearside a permanent one.

"I'm sure they'll ask my opinion," Dodds told We Are Sunderland when asked about his involvement in future contract talks or signings. "There's maybe a narrative that people up here [the boardroom] make the decisions and we just get told at the end of the process.

"I don't think that's completely the case. Don't get me wrong, not just at this football club, but at any club that has a sporting director model, the whole point of that model is to protect the long-term future of that football club.

"So a manager doesn't come in and bring in all the players that he wants and you end up going on this continual cycle of new managers and new players. That will be no different at any football but but since I've been here, whether it be as a development coach working with the first team, or assistant to Tony or Mick, I've always been in those conversations.

"How much they want to listen to me, how much they don't want to listen to me is their decision but I've in all decisions, whether that be contracts, signing of players, not signing of players, I've been in I'd say 75-80 per cent of those meetings."

When asked about Evans' and Dack's future specifically, Dodds remained coy about their future at the club.

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"Not that I'm aware of at the moment," the Black Cats boss said when asked if talks were ongoing. "With all respect to both boys, and respect to myself, I think my priority and their priority is getting back on the pitch.

"I think - I'm sure it'll be in the back of their heads of course it will. I'm sure it's something that the club are thinking about but in terms of priority order, Corry has been out for 13 months so just to be back on the grass will be a huge sense of relief maybe, I don't know. A huge confidence boost.

"The same with Dacky. He's had two or three niggly injuries all year and I think just being back on the grass for them is a priority. I can't speak highly enough of both of them as individuals and as characters, in terms of contract situation, I don't know where the club stands with it, and I don't know where Dacky and Corry's situation is with where they see themselves.