Lynden Gooch was delighted to return to action in Sunderland under-23s’ draw at home to Liverpool on Sunday.
The American midfielder completed a planned 60-minute run-out for Elliott Dickman’s side and came through with flying colours.
Gooch has been putting in the hard yards to return to action ahead of schedule after picking up an ankle ligament injury while in action for the development squad against Tottenham Hotspur in November.
Now he's targeting a return to first-team duty as the lads prepare to welcome Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham Hotspur to Wearside on Tuesday.
“It was really nice to get back out there and to get an hours work under my belt was great,” he said.
“I felt good out there and I thought I got what I needed to get out of the game in terms of fitness and I made some good runs to help me get back in the swing of things.
“There was some good passing so I’m really happy to be back out there and playing football once again.
“I need to make sure I recover now and we’ll see about Tuesday because that all depends on how I recover,” he continued.
“It was my first game in a while so that was the most important thing – hopefully we can start to get some more bodies back now.
“We want to get more points on the board and hopefully I can help the lads do that going forward now.”
