Lee Johnson will take a youthful squad to Spennymoor on Saturday afternoonLee Johnson will take a youthful squad to Spennymoor on Saturday afternoon
Lee Johnson will take a youthful squad to Spennymoor on Saturday afternoon

The Sunderland players you can expect to see in action tomorrow & the youngsters set for a huge opportunity

Sunderland’s pre-season campaign begins in earnest on Saturday when the team travel to Spennymoor for a training friendly.

Lee Johnson welcomed a threadbare squad back to the Academy of Light on Monday, but was given a considerable boost on Wednesday when Aiden McGeady put pen to paper on a new one-year deal.

Having trained with his team-mates in the latter half of this week, the winger could be involved as the Black Cats step up their preparations for a new League One campaign.

As it stands, Sunderland are still yet to reach agreements on the futures of Luke O’Nien, Denver Hume and Charlie Wyke.

Wyke is expected to leave in search of a new opportunity, while there remains hope at this stage that O’Nien and Hume can be convinced that their future is best served by remaining on Wearside.

Either way, none of that trio will be involved on Saturday and that leaves Johnson with a small group of senior professionals for the training exercise.

However, the absence of summer signings so far means there is significant opportunity for a cohort of young players who have stepped up to join the senior group this week.

Anthony Patterson, Ellis Taylor, Ollie Younger, Dan Neil and Josh Hawkes are all being given the opportunity to show they can play a part in Johnson’s group this season, while a number of other U23s are currently stepping up to strengthen the numbers.

Here’s who you can expect to see in action as the 2021/22 campaign gets off to a low-key start.