Tony Mowbray has advised Jordan Willis to look elsewhere for first team football - despite the defender continuing his rehab from long-term injury with Sunderland. Willis has not played for almost two years after suffering a ruptured patella tendon in a game at Shrewsbury Town in February 2021, and he later suffered a second rupture.
He joined the Black Cats in 2019 on a two-year contract which was later extended by another 12 months, before that deal expired in the summer. However Willis has continued his quest for fitness at the Academy of Light and has been training with the U21s, leading to talk that Sunderland might offer him a contract if he could prove his fitness - not least because Mowbray knows him well having previously managed him at Coventry City.
But Mowbray says the 28-year-old will need to play regular games to prove his fitness, and with the likes of Danny Batth, Daniel Ballard, Bailey Wright, Aji Alese, and Luke O'Nien all ahead of him in the pecking order on Wearside, he is unlikely to get much gametime at Sunderland and would be better off looking elsewhere. Asked whether there might be a deal for Willis at Sunderland, Mowbray said: "I've had that conversation with Jordan and I've had that conversation with the club.
