Sunderland defender gives encouraging injury update after goal scoring comeback

Niall Huggins is making encouraging progress in his bid to get back to full fitness.

Huggins showed huge promise in the early days of his Sunderland career but suffered a sequence of injury problems that prevented him from playing regularly.

The full-back made a surprise return to action during last season's play-off campaign, allowing him to hit the ground running in pre-season. The 22-year-old looked sharp at Gateshead, even getting on the scoresheet from an unfamiliar central midfield position.

Huggins is now hoping to build on that in the upcoming tour of the US, which could put him in contention to start the campaign in Tony Mowbray's squad.

"I'm buzzing - the end of last season was kind of just a bonus, to be honest," Huggins told safc.com.

"The plan really was just to finish the season as fit as possible, so to get some minutes especially in front of the home crowd was a really great feeling. I worked hard over the off season, I came in a week early with a few of the lads who had been in just to get a few extra reps and runs in.

"I think that's helped me, I've had a good two weeks [training] and I feel good, and it's just about building that match fitness up now. That will come with time.

"I feel really good and obviously I'm just excited to try and push into the team this season."

Mowbray is relishing the additional depth Huggins could bring, with Aji Alese and Dennis Cirkin currently recovering from injury.