Sunderland boss gives an update on Edouard Michut and when he could make his debut

The French youth international is behind on his match fitness after not being involved with the PSG senior group during pre-season, and had a minor injury setback as he began to adjust to regular first-team training on Wearside.

Michut is back training regularly with the group and the head coach is encouraged with the progress he's making.

The 19-year-old is set to travel south with the group this week, but is unlikely to be involved in the matchday squad against either Reading or Watford.

"I don't think he's too far away," Mowbray said.

"He's trained with us this week but we're still protecting him a little bit, he doesn't necessarily do all of the sessions just at the moment.

"I think the intensity of the training here has been higher than what he had recently, and so I think the first few days for him were hard and he had to be protected a bit. He was feeling it a bit and had a little setback, and we want to build him up bit by bit so he doesn't pull a hamstring or anything like that.

"He's probably a week or two away from being in contention, possibly after the international break he could be. He's coming with us for this trip so that he can do all the training and keep integrating into the group.

"He's a very talented footballer, I'm not sure how many opportunities he had at PSG but you can see the talent, he's very, very assured with the ball at his feet. He wraps it through the lines, he keeps the ball, he can play short and long pass.

"His challenge will be the physicality of this league and it'll be interesting to see how he acclimatises, whether the talent he has on the ball can overcome that."

Mowbray has overseen two bounces games at the Academy of Light over the past week to allow his players to top up their match fitness and to allow him to continue integrating fellow new signing Abdoullah Ba, Amad Diallo and Jewison Bennette into the group.