Ex-Sunderland and Manchester City midfielder Jack Rodwell makes Western Sydney Wanderers debut - and makes this claim about his career

On Saturday, Rodwell came off the bench and played 13 minutes in the 0-0 draw with Sydney FC in the A-League.

Speaking afterwards, the former Sunderland man said: “I'm 30 years old and I still feel like that I've got the best years ahead of me.

"That's why I came here, I didn't come here to come on holiday. I'm here to give it my all.

“We've got a great team here, great manager so let's see what we can do.”

Wanderers manager Carl Robinson said: “I was pleased when he came on.

“He brought a bit of calmness to our game. He's got an authoritative stature about him. Just nice to see him on the field.

“He's literally been training for two weeks.

“We've got to be careful because the last thing that I want to do is throw him out there, get injured and then us as a club and the supporters not see him for two months.

“It'll take time, but hopefully in the next few weeks we'll see him get up to speed and compete in midfield for us.”

Rodwell was a major signing for Sunderland from Manchester City in the summer of 2014 for a fee of around £10million.

But Rodwell struggled to make a consistent impact and as the club dropped into the Championship, he was the only player not to have a wage reduction written into his contract.

It became a source of major contention when he made few appearances as the club were again relegated.

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