Roker Roundup: Sunderland’s Stadium of Light could play host to World Cup football...

Stadium of Light in running for 2030 World Cup

The English, Scottish, Welsh and the two Irish FAs are considering getting together for a joint bid for the 2030 World Cup, a bid which would be launched in 2020.

According to a report in the Telegraph, momentum for the bid has increased in recent weeks with the respective FAs debating a potential shortlist for which stadiums are to be included.

The report goes on to say that the FAs agree that the bid should not be too London-centric, with a maximum of three stadiums in the capital being under consideration but the Stadium of Light has made the shortlist according to the Telegraph’s report, although the final venues will be decided by FIFA.

The full list of stadiums in the frame for the 2030 World Cup bid are:

• Wembley Stadium, London
• Old Trafford, Manchester
• Millennium Stadium, Cardiff
• London Stadium, London
• Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London
• Celtic Park, Glasgow
• Emirates Stadium, London
• Etihad Stadium, Manchester
• Anfield, Liverpool
• St James’ Park, Newcastle
• Hampden Park, Glasgow
• The Aviva Stadium, Dublin
• Ibrox Stadium, Glasgow
• Stadium of Light, Sunderland
• Villa Park, Birmingham
• Windsor Park, Belfast

Dundee get anti-gravity help from Sunderland

Scottish Premiership side Dundee signed former Middlesbrough academy product Andrew Davies back in the January transfer window but the defender broke his foot within a couple of days of completing his move.

Davies is close to making a comeback though and, according to Dundee manager Jim McIntyre, that is largely thanks to Sunderland.

Jack Ross was kind enough to allow the 34-year-old to spend time at the Academy of Light to use the club’s anti-gravity treadmill to help his recovery, with McIntyre hoping it will mean the player will return sooner than expected:

Andrew is back running and has made a lot of progress over the last couple of weeks.

Sunderland gave us permission to use their anti-gravity machine which has helped bring him on.

We are thankful to Jack Ross for letting him use that facility for 10 days.

It has helped but he is over six weeks now – I think it will be seven weeks on Thursday.

He is where we expect him to be but hopefully he shaves a week or so off it.

Meanwhile, Academy product Andrew Nelson has been shining at Dundee but he is currently out injured after picking up a knock celebrating a goal:

Nelson has a heel injury which he picked up celebrating at Livingston. He just jumped up and came down on it.

It looks like absolutely nothing on the video when you watch it back but he just felt something.

It is better but it is not fully away yet.

What we don’t want to do is bring him back too early and then there is a recurrence which would leave him chasing his tail trying to get fitness because he has missed a lot of sessions.

We have tried a couple of different things like putting a heel raise in to take the pressure off that area but he is still a bit tender so we have had to back off.

He was better at the weekend so we will see what it is like by the end of the week.

Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images

O’Shea on Irish academy products

John O’Shea has revealed that he still checks up on two Sunderland academy products despite leaving the club in the summer for Reading.

The former Sunderland skipper says he keeps an eye on James Talbot and Dan Casey who have both been excelling in the League of Ireland of late and O’Shea is delighted to see them prosper:

I’d keep up to date with the League of Ireland for sure, there’s a couple of young lads that are now back in the league that were at Sunderland when I was there and they are doing very well for themselves in the early weeks of this season.

James Talbot had a frustrating time over at Sunderland but seems to be really enjoying his football again which is great. Dan Casey went to Bohs and as a result of his consistency and performances secured a move to Cork City so those are two I would keep an eye on each week, as well as keeping an eye on the league overall.

Photo by Nigel Roddis/Getty Images,