Sunderland AFC transfer news: Cats could lose £40m-rated star attacker after loan clause 'revealed' - reports

The Premier League giants signed Amad from Atalanta in January 2021 for a reported fee of around £25 million – £40 million including bonuses on a five-year contract with the option of an extra year.

However, the 20-year-old struggled to make an instant impact at Old Trafford and was loaned out to Rangers in the Scottish Premier League last season before joining Sunderland on loan ahead of the current campaign.

After a slow start to life on Wearside, Amad’s Sunderland career burst into life before the World Cup break, with the Ivorian attacker netting sublime goals against Birmingham City and Huddersfield Town.

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Amad also scored the only goal of the game as Sunderland defeated Saudi Arabain side Al-Shabab during the club’s mid-season trip to Dubai last week.

However, the Manchester Evening News state that “open to recalling certain players on loan in the January transfer window” and also state that United hold an option to recall Amad.

Sunderland are back in Championship action against Millwall at the Stadium of Light this Saturday following the mid-season friendly win against Al-Shabab. "It was a good exercise for us," Mowbray told safc.com.

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"It was played at a real match tempo and from very early on there were a few meaty tackles going in. Both teams stood their ground and so what was a friendly and a decent football match became a game with a real competitive edge. It went a bit beyond where it should have done late on but we both agreed that we should make a few substitutions and calm the game down. That's what we did and we ended up getting plenty out of it - it was good.

"The players have trained really hard, they've done it twice a day in the sun and they applied themselves really well tonight. I think the fact that the game became ultra-competitive was good for the team because we had to play on the front foot, we had to be aggressive and it was a good football match."