Young defender Denver Hume is part of Elliot Dickman’s development squad currently in Austria as part of the club’s pre-season training camp.
It’s the first time the 20 year-old has travelled with the first team and he’s relishing the opportunity even more after missing out on pre-season ahead of the previous campaign.
“I missed out on all the pre-season fitness training last year due to injury and that wasn’t very nice,” Hume explained, “So it’s great to be with the lads out here now.”
“It’s a very important time and I was playing catch up last year; this season I’ll be up and running.”
Hume has been vigorously put through his paces each day with the rest of the squad in Austria by Dickman and his backroom team as they make the most of the facilities in Austria.
“It’s a really nice place here; it was a bit grim the first couple of days but the weather is much nicer now. I know that makes it more difficult to train when it’s so hot, but you always prefer that to pouring rain,” the full-back added.
“We’ve been working really hard since we came out and the sessions have all been different; working on attacking, defending and focussing on being solid as a team. They’ve all been enjoyable too.”
With a pre-season under his belt the former Academy scholar is hoping he can build on what was a strong campaign for Sunderland’s under-23 team last term and make more of his opportunities.
“It’s good experience being away with the first team, we’ve all been mixing and spending time together.
“Hopefully, I can play a part in some pre-season games whether that be travelling with the squad or on the bench ahead of the new season starting.”