Callum McFadzean makes an honest admission on his fitness ahead of Sunderland's trip to Fleetwood Town

The 26-year-old played 75 minutes for the Black Cats in their FA Cup defeat to Mansfield Town on Saturday, in what was his first senior outing since March.

And while keen to build on his promising debut, McFadzean knows some caution is required after such a long break from regular football.

The minutes, though, will continue to be build-up in the coming weeks.

McFadzean is in-line to feature against the Cod Army in the Papa John’s Trophy on Tuesday evening, and will be assessed after coming through his Sunderland debut.

“I'll see how I come out of it over the weekend, but that's another game where I'm hoping I'll get some more minutes,” said the wing-back.

"There's a few dead legs and stuff like that, but in terms of cramp there was nothing like that. So in that respect, it was good.

"But I've got to be sensible. As much as I would love to be playing 90 minutes I've got to realise that I've not had much [game time] since last March.

"I've got to be sensible and grab the minutes as much as I can, but be sensible with getting the right time in and gradually building.”

While he hasn’t played competitively since March, McFadzean was able to keep fit during his period out the game – thanks in part to his former club.

"Plymouth helped me a lot,” he admitted.

"When I did turn the contract down and stuff they were still great with me and sending me programmes and stuff like that, so a big credit to Jon Lucas there.

"Mentally, it was tough going out and doing stuff on my own. But it helped a bit that I had mates from Sheffield who play football as well, so there was group stuff and things like that.

" I was constantly doing stuff on my own and as much as I possibly could. A lot of running, as much ball work as I could possibly do and stuff like that.”

The cup trip to Fleetwood – although essentially a dead-rubber – gives the Black Cats an opportunity to bounce back from their weekend defeat.

And while McFadzean admits the FA Cup exit wasn’t an ideal debut, he is keen to swiftly move on and look to ‘put it right’ at Highbury.

“Obviously it's disappointing,” he said of the Mansfield defeat.

"Overall, you look at the game for results and for that I'm disappointed. But in terms of getting minutes in and getting back to the fitness levels I know I can get to, personally I came out of it injury free.

"In terms of that aspect, it's good for me personally - but for the team it's disappointing because we want to go out and win every game.

"But that's football and now we have to get our heads down, kick on and put it right on Tuesday night.”

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