Tony Mowbray explains what Pierre Ekwah needs to do to break into his Sunderland team

Ekwah was signed from West Ham United in January but at that stage was yet to make his debut in professional football.

Mowbray has preferred to use the youngster from the bench as he adapts, but Sunderland's physical struggles in midfield over recent games have led to calls for 21-year-old to be brought into the starting XI.

The head coach says that will inevitably happen at some stage, but he believes Ekwah still has work to do in getting up to the pace of the game in professional and Championship football.

Ekwah will be in the squad when Sunderland travel to Norwich City this weekend, having played a part in a 4-1 win for the U21s against Stoke City on Monday night.

Mowbray explained that there will be opportunities for the squad's younger players before the end of the campaign, but that the scale of the challenge in the immediate four fixtures ahead would require a certain level of experience in the XI.

"Pierre has played a huge amount of U23s football and so he needs to adapt," Mowbray explained.

"We had a chat today - he is a lovely footballer and the fans are going to really appreciate the talent in his left foot, and how calm he is with the ball.

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"But when he goes on the pitch he's not playing U21s football and it's not as easy and the pace is so different. I want him to show me in training every day that he is ready to compete, to tackle and to run, to make challenges and come out of a 50/50 with the ball. When he does that, his talent will get him in this team. If he comes into the team to bring physicality but he's not ready and we get overran, whose fault is that. Is it his, or is it mine? I'm trying to get him ready and prepare him for first-team football, so I'm trying to give him a spell on the training ground to understand that you have to quicken up or you'll lose the ball.

"I'm trying to protect him from that instant judgement, and so as soon I see that intensity in training, he will be in the team. It's not a criticism of Pierre at all, he's really talented, I'm just trying to shake him out of what he's been playing in [U23s football] for the last few years.

"Nobody wants skill and quality more than me - but you need aggression as well. So I need to see him run, tackle, win headers and knock people over the middle of the pitch."

"He has to show me in training, and then he'll be in the team."

Mowbray will be forced into at least one change to his XI at Norwich, with Aji Alese ruled out. The head coach is also monitoring another injury to an unnamed senior player.