Sunderland AFC news: Alvarez confusion, Johnson questions for club, Kaboul's hell, Cats beat Newcastle to game

On the transfer front, Ricky Alvarez’s future has again reared its ugly head.

Alvarez is still in the dark over who actually owns his signature – two months after joining Italian side Sampdoria – with FIFA yet to reach a resolution in the row between Sunderland and Inter Milan.

“I still don’t know who holds my card,” Alvarez told the Italian press.

Ahead of tomorrow’s game, defender Younes Kaboul is set to play a key role after returning in midweek from his injury ‘hell’.

Kaboul came on against Crystal Palace for the injured John O’Shea.

“I’ve been through hell,” admitted Kaboul. “I did my hamstring which was six weeks and after two days back in training I did my ankle ligaments, so it’s been a tough, tough time for me but thank god I came back in the team on Tuesday.

“We have 11 games left and we have to be out of this trouble; this team and this city deserves to be in the Premier League, so it is massive for the club and the city and we will give everything out on the pitch.”

Meanwhile, the Echo has put a series of questions to the club about their handling of the Adam Johnson situation.

You can read the questions here.

Good news for Sunderland in the meantime has been the announcement that they will host an England friendly against Australia on Friday, May 27 at the Stadium of Light.

St James’s Park was also in the running, but Sunderland have pipped Newcastle to the fixture which will form part of the build up to the summer’s European Championships for Roy Hodgson’s side.

Details of the game are here.