Ross Stewart update as Sunderland boss Tony Mowbray explains Jewison Bennette and long-term injury situations

The Black Cats striker was present to sign autographs at Sunderland’s open training session and was in good spirits despite a lengthy spell on the sidelines.

When asked about Stewart’s progress, Sunderland head coach Tony Mowbray said: “He’s walking around the building, he’s getting pretty good at darts I can see that.

“Ross is a really good lad, a good pro who works really hard. He’s dedicated and it’s just good to have him around the building because he’s been such an integral part to the success of the team over the last year or so.

“I think he’s on course, he looks fine, he hasn’t got his big boot on all the time now.”

Elliot Embleton and Corry Evans have also been recovering from long-term setbacks, while Dan Ballard was ruled out for two to three weeks with a hamstring issue after playing for Northern Ireland last month.

Alex Pritchard also missed Sunderland’s open training session with a niggling injury but should be available for Friday’s match against Hull at the Stadium of Light.

“It’s good to see the rest of them as well,” added Mowbray when discussing Sunderland’s injured players. “Embleton is walking without a boot on, Corry is walking around without any protection as such.

“I think they are all positives and yet I say that without having discussed those players with the physios this morning.

“The more urgent ones are the ones like Ballard and Pritchard, the ones with little niggles.

“The longer-term lads all look fine to me, on course, and we hope in pre-season we will have some daylight.

“Corry will probably be a bit after pre-season but we’ll see. Hopefully they won’t be too far away, be back with the team and doing light training.”

Jewison Bennette is another Sunderland player who is set to miss the remainder of the season after dislocating his shoulder while on international duty with Costa Rica.

“He was in London the other day for a second opinion which was good,” replied Mowbray when asked about the winger. “The two specialists he’s seen are both Spanish speaking which is good.

“I think they’ve come up with a conclusion of what we’re going to do. I think there is an element of risk on all of these shoulders, no surgeon is ever going to say that’s never going to pop out ever again.

“We’ve tried to minimise the risk of it popping out again for him and it probably adds a few more weeks onto the surgery, but it’s closed season coming so he will hopefully get fit over the closed season and be ready for pre-season.

“There are different levels and procedures of how much they do I think. I would imagine the surgery will be in the next week or so.”

Sunderland have seven games remaining this season and will travel to Cardiff three days after the fixture against Hull.