Tony Mowbray gives Niall Huggins fitness update

Tony Mowbray has given a fitness update on long-term injury victim Niall Huggins, although it sounds like we will have to wait until after the World Cup before he makes his long-awaited Sunderland return.

Huggins saw a promising start to his Sunderland career curtailed by a stress fracture of the back last season. He was expected to return this summer, but then boss Alex Neil reported he had suffered another ‘bizarre’ injury setback.

That means the former Leeds man has not made an appearance for Sunderland since the 5-0 win over Cheltenham on September 28 last year.

However, while Huggins is unlikely to be back any time soon, he does at least know he has a manager who rates him highly in Tony Mowbray.

"I almost signed Niall Huggins at Blackburn,” Mowbray revealed. “I like Niall because he is a bundle of energy and drive and passion and emotion. When you manage a working-class football club with working class people, they want to see their players give everything and Niall is the epitome of that."

"I have to be patient and wait for him. How close is he [to a return]? I generally answer these questions by saying I'm not a physio. I do speak to the physios but I don't like to put timescales on things and put pressure on young players."

"Some need longer to build confidence after a bad injury, and I'm not here to tell them they have to be ready in two weeks or four weeks. They'll be ready when they're ready, and when Niall has got his boots on and is on the training ground, buzzing around and putting tackles in, running, crossing, and shooting, he will be competing to get back in the team again.

"He's not out there with his boots on joining in, yet. He's still a while away so we shouldn't be expecting him to come back in the next few weeks. If the team keeps on doing well, he'll find it tough to get in the team. He's a good player, Niall, and we're looking forward to having everybody fit in the not-too-distant future."

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