Report: Sunderland Still Hopeful Of Resurrecting Peruzzi Deal

Okay - allow us to apologise for this one in advance. We are almost reluctant to even mention the name of Gino Peruzzi now but there appears to be a major update coming from the highly reputably Argentinian sports paper Olé.

It is claimed that Peruzzi has began the rehabilitation at Vélez to correct the lingering knee issue discovered in his Sunderland medical. More importantly, however, it appears the program is being done at the behest of Sunderland with 'the expectation being the transfer will be relaunched'.

Quite when that could be is very much up in the air right now. The rehabilitation is expected to last 6-8 weeks, so it is conceivable that a check could be made late in the window and the decision reassessed based upon his progress. Failing that, there is always January.

The salient point, however, is that Sunderland's interest in Peruzzi clearly hasn't waned if they are taking such an active role in his recovery.

Rather than dropping the interest as has been suggested elsewhere, the focus seems to be upon protecting themselves, which is perfectly understandable. None of us want another Angeleri style situation.

As has been quite widely reported, Sunderland sent Peruzzi to a top specialist in Rome to have the injury assessed. That diagnosis appears to have been that it was serious enough to prompt caution but not serious enough to write him off.

What that all means in the meantime with regard the right back position is anyone's guess. Chasing another target or even Mobido Diakite filling in are options available. Craig Gardner is suspended for the first game of the season, remember. Either way, I am sure more details regarding the club's plans will emerge soon enough.

To be perfectly honest, if the source wasn't such a respectable one we probably wouldn't even mention this. We are just as bored of this transfer as anyone else. It looks set to rumble on for a little while longer, though, albeit it very much in the background.