Sunderland star Ross Stewart 'champing at the bit and ready to go' after injury
Ross Stewart is ‘champing at the bit and ready to go’ after recovering from his thigh injury, says Sunderland boss Tony Mowbray.
Stewart injured himself in the warm-up against Middlesbrough in early September, and he has not been available to Mowbray since.
He has now returned to full training, though, and is set to return to the Sunderland squad for the Championship match against Millwall this week.
"Ross Stewart mixed it up a bit over there [in Dubai], training a bit on his own and a bit with the team," Mowbray said. "He did the warm-ups, the passing drills, and a bit of possession, but he didn't really get involved in the high-intensity stuff.
"Today was the first day that he has joined in the whole session with the whole team and came through it smiling and laughing - I had to take him off the shooting at the end because he wanted to do a bit extra! It suggests he is champing at the bit and is ready to go.”
Stewart, though, may have to content with a spot on the substitutes bench for the Millwall clash, with Mowbray admitting even that is ‘a gamble.’
"We need to have a discussion after training tomorrow (Friday),” Mowbray said. “I guess in his mind he is ready, I think.
“In my mind he has been out a long time and whether we risk him after one day's training, whether we need to risk him off the back of a win where both strikers scored, when after this weekend's game we have nine whole days until the next game, I'm not so sure.
"Maybe it makes more sense to give him a full week's training to get his mind ready that there is nothing wrong with him and everything is fine.
“It feels to me like we might be gambling putting him on the bench [on Saturday], yet if he is adamant that he wants to be on the bench so he can come on if we need a goal and make an impact, we might do that."
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