Jack Clarke insists he is ready to play if Sunderland boss Alex Neil calls upon him tomorrow. The Black Cats round off their pre-season trip to Portugal in the morning with a friendly against Jose Mourinho's Europa Conference League winners Roma at the Estadio Municipal de Albufeira.
New signing Clarke only linked up with the squad on the Algarve on Saturday, having completed his move to the club from Spurs on a four-year deal. And while he returned later for pre-season with Spurs than the Sunderland players, he feels that is not a problem.
"Fitness-wise, I'm feeling good," said the 21-year-old. "I came in a bit later than some of the other lads, I started my pre-season a bit later, but with the short gap between the seasons I didn't feel that I had lost too much, so I'm ready.
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"As a player, you want to be involved in any game possible - that's what excites you as a player. You train all week to be involved in a game so if that doesn't happen, of course you're disappointed.
"So hopefully I will get my first minutes this pre-season tomorrow."
Clarke spent the second half of last season on loan with the Wearsiders, helping the club achieve promotion to the Championship via the play-offs. He said: "It feels great to be back on a permanent basis.
"After last season finished on such a high, there was nowhere else that I really wanted to go to play football, to be honest, so to get the deal done and over the line was a massive thing for me and my family. Getting a short feel for it last year, the fans, and how well we did, the players that I got to play with and the management, it just all fitted into what I want to do and the sort of team I want to play in.
"Winning promotion ranked right up there in terms of my career - it was a massive achievement for the club, the players, and the staff."
Clarke has played at Championship level with Leeds United, QPR, and Stoke City, but he is taking nothing for granted. He said: "Hopefully that will benefit me, but you never know because the Championship is developing all the time and changing all the time.
"It's a very difficult league so we have to be all ready and raring to go for the first game of the season and hopefully get off to the right kind of start. But I don't tend to set targets because you never know what will happen in a season.
"God forbid, but I might get injured in the first game and then your targets are out of the window. I just like to take it game by game and if I'm doing well, I'm doing well; and if I'm not doing well, I have to do things to get back to where I know I should be and how I should be playing."
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- Kyril Louis-Dreyfus invites Sunderland fans to watch training in Portugal
- Albufeira loses its spark, Sunderland's Aussie rules, and a first look at Dan Ballard
- Luke O'Nien taking the positives from Sunderland's aborted friendly with Rangers
- Alex Neil ready to help new boys Dan Ballard and Jack Clarke realise their potential
