Tony Mowbray is determined to avoid pushing Niall Huggins too hard after the youngster made his comeback last week after more than a year out through injury.
The defender has been sidelined since September 2021 with first a stress fracture to his back, and then a heel problem, but Mowbray watched him play 45 minutes for Sunderland's U21s against Reading at Eppleton on Friday night.
After coming through that unscathed, Mowbray says there have been conversations over how quickly to ease the 21-year-old back into training with the first-team, and one option was to include him in today's less-demanding session on the eve of tomorrow's trip to Blackburn Rovers.
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But Mowbray is wary of asking too much of Huggins too soon, and instead he will continue to train with the U21s and is expected to step up his recovery by playing an hour on Sunday when the U21s take on Stoke City at St George's Park.
"It was really good to see him play," said Mowbray. "He's a player I know, someone we had talked a lot about at Blackburn, and had conversations about him coming there.
"He's had a terrible injury situation, but I watched him the other night and he's good, he's dynamic, he's got good pictures, he travels well with the ball, and he's got a competitive edge. We talked about him this morning, regarding when we integrate him back into the first team training group and join in with us today in a matchday minus one scenario when we won't be doing a lot of physical training, it's mainly tactical.
"But as of this moment, my view was to keep him on the plan that we've got for him. Let him train with the U21s so it is less intense, less demanding for him, and he can manage himself through the training.
"He needs to build himself up to a 60 minute game for the U21s, then maybe a 75 minute game, and then a 90 minute game. Once he's done 90 minutes somewhere down the line, he can integrate back into our group.
"I'm just conscious that I don't want to rush him back because it's been a long, long time. I want the plan to come to fruition really, get him playing some [U21s] games, plenty of training, until he has confidence in his body again, and when he is ready he will be back with the first team.
"The plan is to give him an hour on Sunday [against Stoke U21s]. It's just a case that we don't want to feel that he came through that 45 minutes, he looked alright, so let's get him back with us straightaway, and then he breaks down.
"Let's stick to the plan and hopefully it won't be too long before he is back training with us on a daily basis and competing to get in the team."
Huggins joined Sunderland from Leeds United last summer and had played only four games for the club before injury struck in September, just as he was beginning to come into form. His initial back injury was expected to keep him out for three months, but a setback meant that timescale was extended.
He then picked up the heel injury, which then-boss Alex Neil described as 'bizarre', and that ended his season.
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