Tony Mowbray has confirmed that teenage midfielder Chris Rigg will be in the SAFC squad against Shrewsbury. If he makes his debut, he will be ranked behind Derek Forster as Sunderland's second-youngest player of all time.
IMPRESSIVE
"He's coming with us. I watched him train today with the first team and do the game-prep, and I have to say he is really impressive. He's not a big, strong, physical, guy - he's quite slight - but he has a wonderful left foot and he is an incredibly competitive animal. I've seen him for 20-30 minutes in an U21 game against Southampton, and his potential looks enormous to me."
AROUND THE SQUAD
"He looks like a footballer who can play with the silkiness with his left foot, and play lovely passes, but he also looks like a tiger in that he wants to tackle everyone, and that's not a bad mix for a midfielder. For a boy of 15, I don't want to overly build him up other than to say he looked in training today like he warrants being around our squad."
COMPETE V SHREWSBURY
"The first priority is to go there, perform well, and win the football match. And if the opportunity comes to blood a young player in an environment where you feel comfortable, then we will take opportunities to do that. But the first thing - for the people who pay their money and jump in their cars and minibuses and travel for five or six hours each way and get home late - we have to go and win the match."
BALANCE
"There is a balance, though. When do you ever give youngsters an opportunity? But also we have a responsibility to go there and win. Obviously, you can never guarantee you will win but what the fans want is to see a team that is fully committed and tries to win."
BENNETTE UPDATE
"Jewison has been recovering from the World Cup - he didn't play every minute of every game. Bailey was the same, he didn't play when he first came back. They have to get back into the training patterns of how we work, they had been away doing something completely different for a month. He just has to acclimatise back into it and there's a fair chance he'll be involved in this game, hopefully he can bring that little bit of magic that he's shown in glimpses for us and he can try and force his way into a more regular starting position."
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