Tony Mowbray explains the next steps for Niall Huggins after his exciting Sunderland comeback

Huggins ended a spell of a year on the sidelines by completing 45 minutes for Sunderland U21s at Eppleton on Friday night. Having initially suffered a stress fracture of the back, the former Leeds United youngster then suffered stress fractures in both of his heels.

The 21-year-old now finally has a first-team comeback in his sights.

It will be a welcome boost for Mowbray, given that specialist full backs is one area in which the squad is currently short. Lynden Gooch, who has been ever-present in the Championship so far this season, is a doubt for Tuesday night's trip to Blackburn Rovers as he prepares to undergo a scan for a potential issue.

However, Mowbray says that regardless of the outcome he is minded to take a cautious approach to Huggins, who is likely to feature again when the U21s travel to Stoke City on Sunday.

"Niall is a player I know, we talked a lot about him at Blackburn and possibly signing him there," Mowbray said.

"He's been through a terrible injury situation but he was good the other night. He's dynamic, he travels with the ball, has a good picture of the game and is very competitive.

"We spoke this morning about whether we infiltrate him back into the first-team training group but I think at this moment, my view is to keep him on the plan we've got for him. He'll stay with the U21s for the moment so he can manage himself through the training and build himself up.

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"He needs to build to a 60-minute game for the U21s and then maybe 75, and then 90. Then once he's done that down the line, he'll come back into our group. I'm conscious that for example, were Lynden's scan not positive [or we had another injury], it opens up a spot. We've got Trai Hume of course and Luke O'Nien who can do that job, but I don't want to rush Niall back because it's been a long, long time. I want the plan to come to fruition, getting plenty of game time and training, so that he has that confidence in his body again, and he can come back and compete for a place.

"I think he'll be involved again for the U21s on Sunday. We have to keep assessing the fatigue in his body as well, so we won't get carried away that he's a good start and come through 45 minutes.

"We'll keep him on track and hopefully it's not too long before he's training with us and gets us back in the team."

Sunderland’s new U21s boss Graeme Murty said Huggins had shown his quality on his comeback.

Explaining his return to the fold he said: “He came through an internal game really, really well so the first team said we could accelerate him and stick him in, and I thought there were some really good bits.

“It's great to see him back, he was full of beans and desperate to be involved so really, really happy for him to come through unscathed. He showed why he’s a first-team player.”