'Ellis Simms coming back would be huge,' admits Tony Mowbray amid fresh hope of new loan deal

Tony Mowbray has renewed hope that Ellis Simms will return to Sunderland to fill the void left by the injured Ross Stewart.

Stewart is facing a long absence due to the Achilles injury he suffered at Fulham in the FA Cup, leaving Sunderland with just the recently arrived Joe Gelhardt as a striker option.

That is likely to see Sunderland make a fresh push to re-sign Simms, who scored seven goals in 17 games for the Black Cats this season before being recalled by Everton in late January.

Sunderland had always hoped to get Simms back this month, but Everton sacking Frank Lampard complicated that.

However, the Toffees have now turned to Sean Dyche, and there appears to be renewed hope at the Stadium of Light that a deal can be revived.

"Ellis Simms, if he comes back will be huge for this football club, because he gives us a focal point at the front end of the pitch,” Mowbray said. “He scored some massively important goals before he was recalled to Everton.

"There’s a few days to go. I’m assuming Sean [Dyche] is now in with his feet under the desk. Whether they make a quick decision on Ellis Simms, I don’t know.

“Whether they bring another striker in and Ellis is allowed to come back, it would be pretty appropriate for our team to give us a focal point and score goals."

Sunderland are also close to completing a swoop for another Everton player in Joe Anderson, as we exclusively revealed last night.

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