GIVEN that Sunderland have had to dismiss two players in the space of two months, it is probably just as well that Sam Allardyce claims to have discovered a new talent.

“We have finally found a Jack Rodwell,” said Allardyce, as he pondered his team selection for this afternoon’s crucial home game with West Brom. “He has completed games, he has not missed a day’s training and he is not thinking about getting injured anymore. Now he is feeling good, we are seeing some really good performances from him.”

Almost two years after shelling out £10m to sign Rodwell from Manchester City, Sunderland are finally witnessing the emergence of a player worthy of that sort of tag.

It has been a tortuous journey that has featured a succession of injury setbacks, a series of trips to the German medical base of renowned specialist Dr Hans Muller-Wolfhart and a spell of more than 50 different injections in the space of five days, but Rodwell has finally reached a point where he no longer feels his body is going to give up on him.

That is a notable achievement for a player who was once touted as the future of England’s midfield, but who had found himself struggling to even claim a place on the Sunderland bench at the start of the season.

Rodwell’s raw talent has never been in question, but all too often, it has been accompanied by a huge question mark over his ability to remain injury-free and a series of doubts over his physical capabilities in his demanding midfield role.

The 25-year-old freely admits there have been times when he went onto the field doubting his ability to see the game through, so the mental benefits of a clean physical bill of health have been huge. Hence the improved performances that have enabled Rodwell to keep the likes of Lee Cattermole and Seb Larsson out of the team in the last three matches.

“It’s a case of me having more confidence in my body,” said Rodwell, who is set to retain his place alongside Yann M’Vila for today’s game with the Baggies. “There have been some times where I don’t feel 100 per cent out on the pitch, and it does limit me. I feel confident now though.

“For going on three years, I’ve had niggling, recurring injuries. That can definitely have an effect on you mentally. If I’m not feeling 100 per cent, it will affect me. Now I’m at a point where I’m working really hard and feel 100 per cent confidence in my body. That’s good for me, to go on the pitch knowing that.

“I just feel freer. I feel like I can get up and down. Sometimes, I didn’t feel that in the past. Sometimes, I felt little niggling injuries as I was playing. You don’t want to make that extra 20-yard run sometimes when you feel like that. I feel like I can be more aggressive now and make that extra sprint. In the past, I’ve not always been able to.”

The Northern Echo: Barclays Premier League match between Newcastle United and Sunderland at St James' Park, Newcastle on Sunday 20th March 2016. Jonjo Shelvey of Newcastle United and Jack Rodwell of Sunderland.

That freedom is crucial in the role Rodwell is currently filling in the Sunderland team. With Jan Kirchhoff providing a defensive screen and M’Vila also adept at protecting the back four, Rodwell is the central midfielder charged with the task of breaking forward to support Jermain Defoe.

Such a ‘box-to-box’ role was his forte when he burst onto the senior stage with Everton, and was the function Gus Poyet expected him to fill when Sunderland beat off competition from a host of Premier League clubs to sign the England international in 2014.

He has rarely looked adept at carrying it out during his time on Wearside, but while he is frustrated at his failure to score in recent games against West Ham, Southampton and Newcastle, the fact he was breaking into the box to create chances augurs well for a Sunderland side that continue to rely heavily on Defoe’s goalscoring prowess.

“I’ve got the box-to-box midfielder role that I was brought here to play,” said Rodwell. “Jan is the supporting man behind, and it gives me a licence to get forward.

“M’Vila is a bit more defensive minded too, so I feel like I can just make the box whenever I need to. I know there’ll be at least one covering, so that’s good for me. Physically now, I feel like I can make the other box as well.”

The next stage is to score his first Premier League goal of the season, and there could hardly be a better time to break his duck than this afternoon’s game with a West Brom side that lost to Norwich in their most recent outing.

That Norwich result dumped Sunderland back into the relegation zone, and with the Canaries hosting Newcastle this afternoon, it is surely imperative that Allardyce’s side claim what would be just their seventh league win of the campaign.

The club’s last two outings, against Southampton and Newcastle, brought two points, yet the Black Cats were ahead in both games and probably deserved a maximum six-point haul given the quality of their performances.

That they conceded late goals in both games is a considerable frustration, but Sunderland’s overall form in the last couple of months remains a source of optimism despite their perilous position in the table.

“We’ve got eight games left and I think it’s a minimum of four wins we need,” said Rodwell. “There’s no better game to get the first of those than West Brom at home, when we’re in a run of good performances, although not necessarily results.

“It’s in our hands, and that’s the way we’d want it. We’d hate to play really well on the last day and still go down. If we play well and get the results, I’m sure we’ll do it.”