EXCLUSIVE: Sunderland defender on verge of League One loan move

Sunderland youngster Joe Anderson is heading out on loan to Shrewsbury.

Sunderland defender Joe Anderson is joining League One Shrewsbury on a season-long loan, Sunderland Nation can confirm.

The defender joined the Black Cats from Everton in January but has found game-time tough to come by.

That is unlikely to improve in the coming season with Sunderland adding centre-backs Nectarios Triantis and Jenson Seelt to the ranks.

However, Anderson is still rated at the Stadium of Light, and it is hoped that a season in League One will toughen him up physically and add a huge new and needed dimension to his game.

Speaking last season, Mowbray suggested this would be the path they took with Anderson, and the club have a good relationship with Shrewsbury having done plenty of business with them before, including the loan of Carl Winchester last summer.

“For me, he's a centre half in the same mould as players from my previous club like Scotty Wharton and Hayden Carter, young defenders that I sent out on loan to Portsmouth, Cambridge and then they came back and played in the first team every week,” Mowbray said in March.

“They go and grow that muscle, they get experience, they come back with a couple of tattoos... you know what I mean, they're turning into men.

"I'm not saying that's what we'll do with Joe, but if we get recruitment right and things are going OK through pre-season, we might have that discussion with him. See if he wants to go and play 25 games and then come back in the New Year and see where we feel he's at."

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