Although new signing Jan Kirchhoff will travel with the Sunderland squad to Swansea ahead of Wednesday’s clash with the Welsh side, he is unlikely to be available for selection, according to Chris Young of the Sunderland Echo.
The defender, who joined the Black Cats earlier in the transfer window, is now eligible to play after his international clearance was processed, but his lack of training in recent weeks means that he is not ready to play at this moment in time.
The 25-year-old only had two sessions with Bayern Munich after the winter break, and after hardly featuring for them at all this season, he is still lacking match fitness.
According to Young, the Sunderland fitness team are working hard with the German to get him in condition to play, and speaking ahead of the Swansea game, manager Sam Allardyce said that Kirchhoff is more likely to feature in the game against Tottenham at the weekend.
He’s got to get used to the players he’s playing with and he’s got to get his fitness up that little bit more from joining in with the lads. I don’t think he’ll be involved at Swansea, Tottenham is probably the earliest.
