Michael Beale discusses Chris Rigg's progress at Sunderland

Michael Beale says that Chris Rigg has made good progress behind the scenes at Sunderland as he pushes for more senior minutes this season.

Rigg made seven appearances in the early weeks of the campaign, including scoring his first two senior goals. He has not featured under Beale and indeed has not played since departing for the U17 World Cup with England. Assistant head coach and then interim boss Mike Dodds explained that the club were keen to ensure Rigg was regularly getting 90 minutes under his belt, even if that was at the expense of an occasional cameo appearance.

Beale says that remains the case and says he has been impressed with the youngster in first-team training.

"Riggy was due to play in the Youth Cup game on Tuesday away at Gillingham, which was a seven-hour drive, so we decided not to take him to Ipswich if we weren't going to start him in the game, because otherwise he'd have spent the best part of 25-30 hours on a coach in the last week," Beale explained.

"Then that game gets called off and it's replayed next week.

"He's a 16-year-old boy and it's important he plays in those games as well and we give him a game a week if he's not getting on the pitch for us. He trains with us every single day, it's not like he's dropping down in training. He's with the first team every minute of every day, he has three young midfielders in front of him and he's the type of personality who chases after them every day.

"He has that lovely local spirit, like Dan Neil. He's a lefty, there aren't many left-footed centre-midfielders, that's why Pierre is so unique as well and a good asset. There's lots to like but we have to manage that really well because he's 16. This year has been a breakout year for him, scoring against Southampton, he went away with England to the World Cup as well with the U17s which meant he missed a period of the season. Since I've come in I've been really pleased with him."

Rigg could potentially return to the squad for Hull City's visit to the Stadium of Light on Friday night.