Tony Mowbray explains Jewison Bennette dilemma as Sunderland winger prepares for World Cup with Costa Rica

The 18-year-old signed a four-year deal, with a club option of a further year, in the summer, before scoring a late equaliser in a 2-2 draw at Watford in September.

Bennette also scored twice for Costa Rica in a friendly match against South Korea in the same month, but is yet to start a senior fixture for Sunderland.

When asked about the Bennette’s role in the squad Mowbray replied: “I think he’s for the here and now and for the future but he’s such a tender age.

“He’s having language lessons twice a week. There are lots of little things.

“He lives with his dad at the moment, his dad has been over here with him and I know after the World Cup his mum is coming over with him.

“I just feel I’d like us to control more his diet, his sleep patterns. Where does he go? Who is he talking to? I feel as if he’s this young kid who is floating around.

“Listen, he has brilliant moments in training but then some days he looks a bit fatigued and a bit tired, and you think I wonder if he’s been sleeping last night. What’s his time frame? Has he acclimated totally, or is he speaking to his mum at five in the morning?

“I don’t know the answer to all of these things because he can’t communicate it to me.”

Still, Mowbray believes the World Cup experience will be a valuable one for Bennette, as the winger continues to learn and develop.

“I’m pretty relaxed about where he is at the moment,” added Mowbray. “I think he’s a happy kid who doesn’t seem to me like he’s upset or sulking or feeling he’s not playing enough.

“I think he knows he’s on a journey with us really and I think he feels that he’s supported by the coaches, the club are doing their very best to make sure everything is ok for him.

“He obviously trains with us every day and is a lovely kid. It is just difficult to say, ‘when we are over here, you tuck in a bit and play inside the full-back. Stop standing out there.’

“To expose him to the team where we have to try and win a match and he’s not knowing his job, it’s not fair on the rest of the players.

“Putting him off the bench and saying: ‘ just stand there and beat him and cross it in the box.’ That’s the easiest thing at the moment but football is more than stick a left winger out there, let him beat his man and put it in the box.

“He has to know where he is out of possession and know his job and his duties. There is the slight frustration and I think he’ll be so much better when the language becomes less of an issue.

“He’s so young and I don’t see that he should be accelerated into the team. Let’s hope by the time the next World Cup comes around he’s played hundreds of games for us, he’s an international star. He has the talent to do that.``