Sunderland boss explains reason behind benching Manchester United loanee Amad

Sunderland manager Tony Mowbray has claimed that Amad's return to the UK just over 24 hours before kick-off against Burnley prevented the Manchester United loanee from starting on Friday night.

Having initially struggled during his loan spell in the North East, Amad has begun to find his feet with the Black Cats and has hit sparkling form in the Championship. The 20-year-old's performances earned him a call-up to the Ivory Coast squad for their Africa Cup of Nations qualification double-header against Comoros.

While he did not feature in the 3-1 victory on March 24, Amad would play 74 minutes on March 28 as the Ivorians completed the double over Comoros with a 2-0 victory. However, this led to a quick turnaround for the youngster as he attempted to make it back to England before Friday night's clash at Turf Moor.

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Explaining his decision not to start Amad, Mowbray said: "Amad arrived at the hotel at 7pm on Thursday night. He came straight from Manchester when his flight got in.

"He hasn’t trained with anybody all week, so we had no idea what his physical condition is. We would obviously want to start with Amad, but we couldn’t. It would have been the wrong thing to do."

Mowbray would eventually call on Amad on 63 minutes and the United man almost made an immediate impact. Within six minutes of being on the pitch, Amad saw his deflected shot hit the crossbar as Sunderland attempted to find a winner but they would end up being held by Vincent Kompany's side. The point leaves Mowbray's team 11th in the Championship.

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