'Engaged with us': Sunderland boss gives his honest view on Ross Stewart contract talks

The Sunderland head coach insists that will change over time and also reiterated that he is relaxed about Stewart's future, once again praising the Scot for his clear commitment and exceptional performance level both in games and in training.

The head coach has previously said that he expects the talismanic striker to stay beyond the end of the January transfer window.

"I don't want to delve into it too much - what I know as the head coach is that he's really engaged with us and he's training really, really well," Mowbray said.

"He engages on the training pitch, if he sees something that might help he is using the voice and giving his opinion. He is very engaged both with this team and this football club - he wants us to win and he wants us to do well.

"The stuff beyond that, it's not in my control. We all hope we can find the answer to what keeps Ross happy and makes him feel like a very, very important player for this club.

"And when we do we got to the point where we grow the team to the point where we can satisfy his needs. The context is that we just came out of League One, with League One salary levels and everything, because you have to manage the club prudently. How quickly do you jump to being a top [Championship] team who pays that [level of] money? We aren't there yet. We have to grow it and hopefully he wants to be part of the journey, and when we are paying top Championship wages then he knows that it's coming. We have to grow the team to get there.

"At the moment, there are a lot of teams way ahead of us in this league in terms of salary."

Stewart will look to extend his incredible recent scoring run against Swansea City on Saturday, having found the net in each of his five appearances since returning from a thigh injury last year.