WITH a rejuvenated Take That currently riding high at the top of singles charts, Steve Caldwell is hoping that his latest return to the Sunderland starting line-up means he too is "Back for Good".

Caldwell was sidelined for almost three months at the start of this season after sustaining a knee injury in August's one-goal defeat to Birmingham.

He returned to action in this month's 1-0 defeat at Norwich, only to be dropped to the bench as manager Roy Keane preferred to pair Stanislav Varga and Danny Collins at the heart of his side's defence.

Frustration was beginning to kick in but, with Collins switching to the left flank as Sunderland outclassed QPR on Tuesday, Caldwell found himself back in the thick of the action.

He is certain to remain there as Norwich visit the Stadium of Light this afternoon - Varga is suspended after picking up five yellow cards - and is desperate to justify his status as skipper by earning a sustained run in the first team.

"It's important that I'm playing games now," said Caldwell, who made 26 appearances as Sunderland tumbled out of the top-flight last season. "It's all very well coming in for one game, but I want to get a bit of form going and you need to be playing games to do that.

"Anybody who knows me knows that I want to be playing football. Hopefully that's what I'm going to be doing from now on.

"I feel like I'm ready, although I know I need games. My timing is only going to get better the more games I play.

"It's not easy to sit on the sidelines watching. I did it when I was injured and it wasn't particularly enjoyable then, but it's worse when you're sitting there and you're fit.

"Sometimes it's like that when you come back from injury though. Sometimes you just have to be patient and try to look at the bigger picture.

"Eventually, everything just seems to click together and I hope that's happening now. I think it is, and it's obviously important that I'm playing football at this stage of my life and my career."

Sunderland go into this afternoon's game on the back of a four-match unbeaten run, a sequence that has taken them to 14th place in the Championship table.

A success over Norwich would almost certainly lift the Wearsiders into the top half of the table for the first time this term, increasing hopes of a sustained promotion push in the second half of the campaign.

"We've been talking about getting on a run for so long now, so it's important that we make the most of this one," said Caldwell.

"If you win a couple of games in a row you're going to climb up three or four places in the table. That can make a massive difference to where you are in relation to the play-offs.

"If we win (today), we'll move forward again. The position that we're in at the moment does not tell the whole story because we have better players than that.

"It's all very well saying that, you have to go out there on the pitch and prove it. We did it on Tuesday night and the challenge now is to do it again against Norwich."

Meanwhile, Norwich's spending power will be reduced by at least £7m and they may have to sell players if they fail to win promotion this season.

The Canaries have revealed they made a profit of £2.5m for the year ending May 31, which was £5.1m less than they had made for the previous 12-month period.

Norwich were relegated from the Premiership in 2005, and this is the final season in which they are eligible for the 'parachute' payment for clubs who fall out of the top flight, meaning players like star striker Robert Earnshaw could be sacrificed.

Director of finance and operations Shaun O'Hara said: ''Failure to win promotion at the end of 2007 will reduce our income by a minimum of £7m following the loss of the Premiership parachute payments.

''While the club remain in the Champion-ship it will be necessary to balance the cashflow and generate surplus funds by selling assets.''

Burnley striker Andy Gray has been ruled out for two months after X-rays confirmed the Clarets' ten-goal striker broke three bones in his right foot on Tuesday.