Sunderland boss Roy Keane is ready to send striker David Connolly away on-loan.

He said: "Dave had a hip operation just before the end of last season and he is making a good recovery.

"It's a slow process, but he is recovering quite well and he is back doing a bit of light jogging. I don't like putting dates on things but I would hope that Dave would be back out on the training pitch in the next week or two.

"He is possibly one of the people that I would look to send out on loan. He needs to play because he has missed an awful lot of games. It's something we'll look at when he is available."