JOHN O’SHEA has given David Moyes a fresh boost on the injury front as Sunderland look to have more options available for an important return to action against Hull City next week.

Moyes is desperate to have a stronger squad to call on after a frustrating six weeks and a constantly busy treatment room and the signs are encouraging with eight days until the Tigers travel to Wearside.

O’Shea, who missed the victory at Bournemouth with a hamstring problem, has recovered sooner than expected and has travelled to Ireland ahead of tomorrow's World Cup qualifier with Austria.

The centre-back had delayed joining up with the Irish to focus on recovery, but has been deemed fit enough to travel and Moyes will be updated with the player’s fitness before and after the international.

O’Shea is one of a number of injured players due to make a comeback against Hull.

Seb Larsson and Vito Mannone came through 90 minutes of football on Wednesday night as they helped the Under-23s to victory over Notts County in the Checkatrade Trophy. The Black Cats now face Wolves Under-21s in the next round.

Moyes has not ruled out Jan Kirchhoff and Lee Cattermole for the visit of Hull either and to have those two available to compete for midfield spots would be a major fillip for the manager.

Then it would just be just about when Fabio Borini is due to return and there is still an outside chance he could be available the following week for a trip to Liverpool.

Moyes could, though, have the unwanted distraction of dealing with a problem between record buy Didier Ndong and his country, Gabon.

Ndong has been told to return to Sunderland after failing to turn up for international duty this week even though he had been in his country’s capital, Libreville, since Monday. Ndong didn’t make international training on Tuesday.

He was due to play for Gabon in a World Cup qualifier with Mali tomorrow and they were in need of a victory after drawing their opening group fixture with Morocco. Gabon have never qualified for the World Cup.

A statement from Gabon FA said: “It was decided in agreement with the technical staff to inform Sunderland the player is sent back to England. His travel document was amended accordingly.”