Tony Mowbray drops big Sunderland selection hints ahead of Ipswich Town clash

Dennis Cirkin is fit to start Sunderland's Championship campaign against Ipswich Town on Sunday evening, Tony Mowbray has confirmed.

Cirkin missed the latter stages of last season with an injury and was only able to make one appearance during the pre-season campaign, playing 74 minutes in the 1-1 draw with Real Mallorca at the Stadium of Light last Saturday.

However, Cirkin has been in full training for a number of weeks and so Mowbray has strongly suggested that he will have no concerns naming him in the starting XI.

"Yes, he seems fit, he seems fine," Mowbray said.

"He's training every day now, he is getting through every session, he looks confident, he knows his position in the team and what is expected of him.

"We need to keep him strong and robust and positive, and hopefully he becomes a really big player for us.

"He has the talent to be a really big player for us - he is one of this young group of players that collectively, together, can make a name for themselves, I think."

Mowbray remains hopeful that Cirkin can complete 90 minutes but is comfortable that he will have adequate cover on the bench if not. Championship clubs can name nine substitutes on their bench this season, though they are still limited to making five across three stoppages in play.

"I think he can play 90, I'm hoping he can," Mowbray said.

"But there's enough cover behind if he's struggling and puts his hand up and says he needs to come off.

"I think the game will be taxing - for Dennis, particularly, because Wes Burns plays out there and they hit a lot of diagonal balls over the top of the left-back for the wide-right player to run into the space behind, so he is going to have his hands full on the weekend.

"Let's wait and see, but we have enough defensive cover around in terms of Gooch, Huggins, and players like that who can comfortably fill in in that position."

Mowbray could well name a team unchanged from that which faced Real Mallorca on Saturday, after the heavy 5-2 defeat to Hartlepool United on Tuesday night.

Asked if he knew his starting XI for Sunday's game, Mowbray said: "At the moment, I do.

"If you'd been at Hartlepool the other night you would have seen that not too many of those players are going to be impacting the starting XI at the weekend. That might seem harsh and yet the reality is, I say to my players that they are being judged all the time. To compete as well as we did against a team that finished in the top half of La Liga on the Saturday, that is a tough game and it was a real good test for us.

"Do I know my team? Yes. I've said before that we need to add a couple more players and we will do that, not by Sunday but definitely by the time the window has closed."