The Black Cats flew to Dubai on Monday and will return back to Wearside at the weekend.
Jack Colback: “To be honest I think it’s come at a bad time.
“On the back of two defeats you don’t really want to have a break, you want to go on to the next game and try to get a few points.
“In that sense, it’s a bit of a bad time, but it does give us chance to take a step back and assess.
"It also gives the new lads a bit more time to settle in, but they’ve done that quickly anyway.
“We got a couple of wins in a row and got up to 11th and within touching distance of the teams above us.
“It was disappointing that we haven’t been able to get a win since then to take us in to the top ten.
“But the performances have been good, so it’s onwards and upwards.”