JEREMAIN LENS will be formally confirmed as a Sunderland player later today, but the club have pulled out of a deal for Nicolas Lombaerts amid wrangling over the cause of a last-minute U-turn.

Lens flew into the North-East yesterday afternoon to undergo a medical and agree personal terms after Dynamo Kiev officials accepted an offer of around £8m for the Dutch winger.

Having previously worked with Dick Advocaat during his time at PSV Eindhoven, Lens has agreed to move to Wearside despite competing interest from a number of European clubs.

The 27-year-old, who boasts 29 senior international caps and helped Dynamo to a domestic double last season, has been keen to leave Ukraine because of the ongoing political unrest in the country.

Advocaat is hoping he will add some of the attacking pace and creativity that was lacking in Sunderland’s play for much of last season, and he is expected to link up with the Black Cats squad in the United States ahead of Saturday morning’s friendly with Club Pachuca.

Sunderland kicked off their North American tour with a 1-0 defeat to Sacramento Republic in the early hours of yesterday morning, and it is hoped that Lens will be involved in at least one of their remaining two matches.

Having started his career with AZ Alkmaar, the winger has won an Eridivisie title and Dutch Cup, and helped Holland to a third-place finish in last year’s World Cup finals.

He will become Sunderland’s third summer signing after Sebastian Coates and Adam Matthews, but will not be joined by Lombaerts after a chaotic 24 hours that saw the collapse of the centre-half’s proposed move from Zenit St Petersburg.

Having previously downplayed suggestions of a failed medical, senior Sunderland sources are now claiming that tests did indeed reveal a problem related to a 2008 anterior cruciate ligament injury that left Lombaerts on the sidelines for the best part of a year.

Having identified an area of concern, Sunderland’s medical staff are understood to have sought a second opinion before opting to call off the deal.

However, Lombaerts disputes that sequence of events, claiming he opted to pull out of the transfer, even though he had travelled all the way from Russia, having previously indicated that he was willing to accept Sunderland’s offer of personal terms.

While the Black Cats insist that a fee and terms had been agreed prior to Lombaerts’ medical examination, the 30-year-old defender claims that was not the case.

“I took the decision myself,” said Lombaerts. “I didn’t want to join Sunderland. The story about a failed medical is untrue. I want to stay in Russia. It’s a thoughtful decision – with Zenit we fight for trophies every season.”

Regardless of where the truth lies, Sunderland’s recruitment team will have to look elsewhere as they attempt to strengthen the back four. A new move for Virgil van Dijk is extremely unlikely, with Celtic refusing to lower their £10m valuation of the Dutchman, but Manchester United’s Jonny Evans has emerged as a potential target.

Sunderland’s overnight defeat to Sacramento came courtesy of a 58th-minute strike from Cameron Iwasa, with Steven Fletcher having hit the crossbar for the Black Cats when the game was goalless.

Sunderland: Mannone; Matthew (Buckley 46), Beadling, Brown, O’Shea (Bridcutt 46); Larsson, Cattermole, Rodwell, Giaccherini (Wickham 46); Defoe (Watmore 66), Fletcher (Graham 46).