Sunderland boss Gus Poyet admits Alfred N'Diaye is likely to move on.
Celta Vigo have made an approach for the Frenchman this week.
"It is hard. It is not nice, because they are part of the club and part of the culture," Poyet said of N'Diaye.
"However, I get paid to make decisions and which players to leave behind is one of those decisions too.
If you think about the central midfielders I can play at the moment - Jordi Gomez, Seb Larsson, maybe Emanuele Giaccherini - aside from Alfred there is nobody else.
"The only other thing I could do is to change the system and play Liam Bridcutt and Lee Cattermole, but I don't want to do that."
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