Jan Kirchhoff is hoping to earn a Premier League recall when Sunderland face Everton on Monday evening (KO 8pm).
The midfielder made his highly-anticipated return to action in Tuesday’s Checkatrade Trophy tie at Rochdale, with deadline-day signing Jason Denayer also featuring at the Crown Oil Arena.
Yet to feature in the Premier League this season, Kirchhoff is hoping to build on a solid few weeks at the Academy of Light and play a part when the Black Cats host of the Toffees on Wearside.
“I’m really looking forward to the next few weeks,” said the German. “I have to do my best in training over the next few days and show the manager that I deserve to start the game against Everton.
“I need to see how fast I can build on 90 minutes but I feel good and I’m ready for the next challenge.”
He continued: “It has been a busy summer with players leaving and arriving as well as a new manager, but I think we have a really good base to build from.
“We’ve set targets which will see us improve from last season because we have a good squad with a lot of quality, and we want to win as many games as we can.
“The team are not content with simply staying in the league and we want to achieve a bigger goal.”
