SAM ALLARDYCE wants to help Jack Rodwell recapture the sort of magic which made him a hot prospect at Everton – provided Sunderland’s £10m midfielder wants to help himself.

Rodwell returns to Goodison Park tomorrow afternoon not even certain of a place on the Black Cats bench after a frustrating first 14 months attempting to reignite his career.

The 24-year-old has seen his confidence shattered and his quality suffer since he decided to leave Everton for Manchester City in a £12m deal in 2012.

It is that spell at City, where he only made two Premier League starts in two years, which still appears to be holding back the former England Under-21 international at the Stadium of Light.

Allardyce, who was a big admirer of the midfielder in his younger days when he even tried to sign him for West Ham, is keen to do everything he can to make sure Sunderland’s expensive recruit actually lives up to his billing.

“I think a player that has done so much so young in their life, they have to have lost their confidence if they find themselves not being selected by the manager and finding why that is,” said Allardyce.

“Clearly, when he moved from Everton to Manchester City, the big move in his career, I tend to think that Man City bought him because he was a homegrown player and they didn’t have enough.

“That made him almost in Manchester City’s eyes having been bought as a squad player which wasn’t a very good career move, so maybe in hindsight staying at Everton would have been a better thing. He is where he is now and it’s my job to get him back to where we know he can be.”

Allardyce has a decent track record of improving the fortunes of struggling players, having helped El-Hadji Diouf, Jay-Jay Okocha and Ivan Campo really enjoy extended stints at the top level when it seemed their careers were coming to an end. Closer to home, he was also responsible for getting Stewart Downing back to his best after a frustrating few years at Liverpool.

But the Sunderland manager believes he can only do so much and, ultimately, it will be down to how much Rodwell wants to put in to trying to re-establish himself as an English talent.

Allardyce said: “I see a young man desperate to get back so all we have to do is help him along the way now. Whenever a player continues to pick up injuries, which seems to be one of the reasons that has stopped the process for Jack, which makes a player concerned.

“Is he worried that every time he trains he’s going to get injured? What have I done now? And so on. We’ve got to try to overcome that first.”

He added: “I always encourage players to work extremely hard when the training session is finished. The sessions that a manager or the coach puts on are planned on a week to week basis, but you are not finished there.

“It is up to you to go and find something else to do with the staff we’ve got here. We will ask them and encourage them to do it. We’re not going to force them to do. Or at least I don’t do that.

“In the end, you’ll ask them two or three times and then you’re saying to yourself, ‘well, do they really want to help themselves?’ I can help them as much as I can, but it won't work unless they help themselves.

“Jack is a particularly interesting case for me because I want to see the lad who played in the Premier League when he was 16, 17 and 18, which is hugely unusual. And then at 23, 24 become what seems to be a bit-part player.”

Rodwell is available again for the trip to Everton after missing out on the victory over Newcastle last Sunday because of injury. It promises to be a big few months under Allardyce for all of the players because he will want to make changes – and Sunderland are not a club who can stockpile.

He said: “I don’t think a club like this can afford to have a player of that stature, in terms of the financial commitment, as a squad player. When you buy a player of that size for this club, that’s a key player for your team. He should be one of the first picks on a Saturday.”

How long it takes Rodwell, who has only made 20 league starts in two years for Sunderland, to get in to Allardyce’s time team is the burning question, but the honest-talking manager admits every player has a chance.

The former West Ham boss said: “I can show you how to win with all the experience I’ve gained. Statistics have been used for so long now, but I was one of the lovers of statistics right from the very start, when I first saw them in 1999 when I went to Bolton.

“It’s huge help to be able to show them statistically what they have to do and achieve, both as a squad and an individual in that position. There’s an elite performance then there’s an average performance and then there’s a s*** one.

“It’s not difficult for me to look at those stats and say ‘look, we’ve got to improve in this area, we’re not so bad in that area’ and so on. Then there’s the use of your own eyes and that of your coaches as an experienced manager which combine the two together to make the player better and that starts with training properly.”