The agent of Sunderland skipper Dean Whitehead has cooled talk of a move to Stoke City.

"He is under contract with Sunderland and we only did that last year," Phil Sproson said in The Sentinel.

"He has had one or two people interested in him during the last couple of years.

"I know Tony Pulis has been an admirer of his for a while, but that is only to say he is Tony's sort of player. Maybe people have picked it up from there."