Lamine Kone and Kazenga LuaLua are expected to be part of Chris Coleman’s squad when Sunderland travel to Birmingham City on Tuesday, but neither player is ready to start.
Kone made his return to action one week ago as the under-23s dispatched Leicester City at the Stadium of Light, but LuaLua hasn’t featured since late November.
Jonny Williams won’t feature, though, with Tuesday’s trip to St Andrew's coming too soon for the Welshman who completed 80 minutes in yesterday’s under-23 defeat to Arsenal.
Speaking to safc.com, Coleman providing the latest on Kone, Williams and LuaLua, while also elaborating on where he sees the Black Cats’ new recruit fitting in.
“Jonny had 80 minutes yesterday in the under-23s and Lamine had 60 minutes earlier in the week,” said the Sunderland boss.
“They both came through it okay, a bit rusty, but you’d expect that after two or three months out, and both players are fine.”
He continued: “Tomorrow is a little bit early for both but Lamine will be in and around the squad.
“I think Jonny probably needs another 60 or 90 minutes before we can say we can consider him to be on the bench for us.
“Kazenga isn’t ready to start but he ticks the boxes for me in what I want from players coming here, as he’s hungry, wants to prove himself and he wants to be here.
“He’s an explosive player. I know I see people looking at it are saying, ‘we have Callum, we have McGeady, we’ve got wingers’, but really I want him to play down the middle for us in a two.
“That’s how I see him and maybe he will have to do a job out wide if we don’t go with wing-backs, but I’ve really brought him here to play in a two down the middle as a nine or a ten because of his pace.
“We need that pace in behind and Josh and Joel need some support as they’re good but they’re young, so along with Kaz we really need one more up there in the middle.”
