Fit-again Grigg in line for Black Cats debut
Jack Ross believes Will Grigg should be fine to make his Black Cats debut at Oxford.
The 27-year-old striker (pictured) moved to Wearside from Wigan on transfer deadline day, but hasn’t played in recent weeks after picking up an ankle injury last month.
But, having returned to full training on Wednesday, Ross has confirme d the striker will travel to the Kassam Stadium and could make his Sunderland bow against The U’s
“He should be fine to travel,” said Ross, when asked about Grigg’s fitness levels.
“He trained the majority of the session on Tuesday, he trained all of the season so unless there’s and adverse reaction general fitness he’s fine.
“Like Grant (Leadbitter), like Lewis (Morgan) he’s not played a lot this season and there’s two sides to that.
“One, it’s trying to get the legs up to speed, but also going to be a freshness about them.”
Lee Cattermole aside, Sunderland will travel to Oxford with few injury concerns, meaning there will be competition for places this weekend.
“It’s the healthiest we’ve been as a squad, there’s not been that many cases like that this season.
“There are one or two cases where we’ve had a full squad but we’ve always carried injuries so there’s the absolute competition for places at the moment which is what you want.
“I think players understand they have to be at it all the time in training and have a performance level in games which keeps them in the team.
“What it will allow us to do is be a bit more flexible in our approach to games.
“All in all we’re in a good place on paper and the next part of it is putting that into practice on the pitch as well,” added the Sunderland boss.
Grigg is eager to make his mark on Wearside afhi ter s bumper move from Wigan, the d eal worth up t o £4million, a League One record.
He is targeting 10 Sunderland goals b etween now and the end of the season. And having taken part in training with his new teammates at the Academy of Light, he is ready to launch his Sunderland career.
“I always seem to like this sort of end-of-season period,” he told the Echo this week.
“A lot of my goals to do seem to come from January onward.
“I just want as many as possible to help the team. I think we’ve got 18 games [left], so the aim would be ten and we’ll go from there.
“At the moment it’s just about getting out there and seeing what I can do.”
Sunderland have been allocated another batch of tickets for the trip to Wycombe Wanderers.
The Black Cats travel to Adams Park on Saturday, March 9 (KO 3pm).
Originally allocated 1,800 tickets, an additional 930 tickets have now been made available and will go on sale via the Black Cat point system.