Tony Mowbray says Sunderland are in discussions with 'various clubs' in a bid to bring in attacking reinforcements as quickly as possible to share the goalscoring burden with star striker Ross Stewart. The Black Cats suffered a blow at the weekend when Everton recalled Ellis Simms from his loan spell on Wearside, which left nine-goal top scorer Stewart as the club's only specialist centre-forward.
Sunderland had to cope without both Stewart and Simms earlier in the season, before Simms returned in November and Stewart last month. And Mowbray knows that until another striker arrives, he is only one injury away from having to make do and mend once again.
The head coach said at the weekend that Sunderland were looking at bringing in a frontman on loan, and were also exploring the possibility of signing a young striker on loan. Asked how quickly he wants another striker in the building, he said: "As soon as possible, really.
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"We need reinforcements. Ellis has gone back so Ross is our only out-and-out striker.
"We were without them both for a while. When you've got a big striker, a main man, the guy you look to for goals, some clubs are happy to do that and have one and not have another big player next to them vying for starting time.
"It's pretty unlikely that we are going to splash millions and millions on a big name to come in and play centre-forward. I think we need a young guy, like Ellis Simms did, who can come in and compete and know that he is learning off Ross, watching him and being around him and supporting him and some days we play two up front and other days he comes off the bench.
"That's what we are looking for, a player who can come and support our forward who at this moment every time he goes on the pitch he scores a goal. How quickly will that happen? I hope in the next few days, but it might not because deals aren't always done as quickly as you want them to be done.
"I know the club is working really hard behind the scenes trying to make things happen, and what is important is that you have options and you are not just stuck on one player because otherwise you play into the hands of agents or other clubs. It's important that you have some targets and I know the recruitment department is working really, really hard and we are having discussions at the moment with various clubs about various players, and we'll see which ones drop in."
A further complicating factor is that Stewart's form has led to speculation linking him with a number of clubs in the January window, as talks over a new contract at Sunderland continue. But the Scotland international has another 18 months left on his current deal, and Mowbray says he is confident Stewart will still be a Sunderland player when the window closes.
He said: "I'm confident [Stewart will still be at Sunderland at the end of the month]. I'm not sure the phone is ringing off the hook at the moment.
"It's great that he is scoring all the time, he's back fit, he's starting football matches again [after recovering from the thigh injury that kept him out for three months]."
Sunderland are preparing to take on League One Shrewsbury Town in the FA Cup third round on Saturday and Mowbray has a decision to make over whether to risk Stewart in that game. He said: "I've had a conversation with him today and, without giving the team away, he wants to play on Saturday because he wants to keep building up his resilience.
"That's a decision we'll make as a management team, whether we risk Ross Stewart picking up an injury in an FA Cup match when we've got important league games coming up, or whether we play him to help him build up his resilience and keep his confidence up."
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