JACK ROSS has begun to plan for the January transfer window, and is confident Sunderland’s ongoing contract talks will not affect his ability to recruit at the turn of the year.

The Black Cats are currently holding discussions with Josh Maja, Lynden Gooch and George Honeyman, all of whom are due to become free agents at the end of the current campaign. At the same time, Ross is working with his recruitment team to begin to put together plans for January.

Sunderland’s financial position has improved with the departure of Didier Ndong and Papy Djilobodji, but Stewart Donald has consistently admitted that the budget remains extremely tight.

It would get even tighter if Maja, Gooch and Honeyman were to sign improved deals, but Ross will continue to focus on potential recruits in a number of pre-identified positions.

The Sunderland boss said: “At the moment, any planning that’s being done for January is more about positions. We’re looking at that rather than finances, and how we juggle the finances to allow us to do what we want to do.

“Stewart is fairly supportive in that sense, and I take a fairly pragmatic approach to that too. At the moment, it’s more about what we feel we need positionally.

“Then, it’ll be about fitting the pieces together accordingly. If we look at a position and identify that as being appropriate, then the players we identify might not fit with the parameters we have to work to. But we’ll deal with that further down the line.”

Having climbed to third position when they won at Shrewsbury Town at the weekend, Sunderland return to their travels when they head to Doncaster Rovers’ Keepmoat Stadium tomorrow.

Doncaster are currently a point behind Sunderland in the standings, and Grant McCann’s side have suffered just one home defeat this season.

As a result, Ross accepts tomorrow’s game will provide a stern examination of his side’s promotion ambitions.

He said: “It’s a difficult game. When we looked at the games we had coming up a couple of weeks ago, it was one you knew was going to be a real marker in terms of the challenge of it.

“But I also think we’ve been good in these games. There’s something about them that suits our squad. Sometimes, the style of the game suits us better as well.

“I’m quite excited about tomorrow. I’m looking forward to it, and I sense that to the players as well. I mentioned it before Peterborough, there’s almost a challenge to these games when you’re playing a team that’s up and around it.

“A lot of them respond to that in a really good way because I there’s enough quality in there, and also with what they’ve experienced, they want to keep proving they’re good players. I would imagine that will be the case again tomorrow in terms of the performance.”

Glen Loovens is due to return to training before the weekend, but the defender will not be considered for tomorrow’s game. Similarly, while Duncan Watmore continues to step up his recovery, he remains some way off a first-team return.