Zambian To Return For Second Trial

Last month news broke that Sunderland were taking a long and hard look at giant Zambian defender Stoppila Sunzu with a view to a permanent move. This seemed to later be ruled out by Martin O'Neill who according to reports was put off by TP Mazemebe's £4m asking price.

Not so true it now appears as the manager has shed more light on our moves for Sunzu, and told that the 6'3 central defender will be back, as he explained to the Sunderland Echo today;

He played a little game the other day, but he had a swollen knee before he came here and he had to come off in the game. That will stop him training for a week at most. And then he'll be going away to play during the international break so we'll monitor him during that game.

But I haven't seen enough of him yet to to make a decision on him.

Nobody has ever mentioned a price. We've done things by the book, approaching his club (over a trial) and they've said that's fine.

Sunzu will be in action for Zambia against Lesotho over the international period before returning to Wearside to continue training.

It certainly appears we're a little more interested that first appeared anyway, and it's a one to watch as he could fit our needs for a new, younger central defender. At the tender age of 23 he's already held in very high regard and will hopefully go on to big things. Might be a little early for that sort of talk, but it's certainly encouraging.