JORDAN JONES will return to the Sunderland squad for tomorrow’s home game with Oxford United – and Denver Hume also has a chance of being involved in the weekend double-header that also features an Easter Monday trip to Peterborough United.

Jones is back in full training after recovering from the injury issue that has kept him out of the Black Cats’ last four games, while Hume continued to step up his comeback from a long-term lay-off with a 75-minute appearance in the Under-23s’ 3-0 win over Burnley on Monday.

Sunderland boss Lee Johnson said: “Jones is in a good place. He’s had three or four days training now, and feels good and looks sharp. He naturally will come back into the squad.

“Denver is not a million miles away now. There’s probably a decision to make over the next two games whether we reintroduce him. I’ll have a good chat with him, sometimes that positionally as well.”

Bailey Wright and Tom Flanagan remain sidelined, although Johnson is confident the defensive duo will both be available at some stage in the remaining ten games of the season.

He said: “I expect both to be back before the end of the season, for sure. If all goes to plan, Bailey is probably one week away from training with the players. We’ll look to get him in training with the boys next Friday, and at that point, we’ll have to assess what sort of minutes he needs.

“We’ll have to look at the game schedule with the Under-23s, and we may even arrange a game again so we can control the minutes within that.

“Flanno is a difficult one at the moment. He’s had two separate opinions on a foot injury and they’re both very different, which is very unusual with the specialists being top specialists. We need to know whether we’re going to have a third opinion on that.

“In the meantime, he’s nursing the hamstring, which is going very well. He was out running today, although that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s near a comeback.

“With Flanno, it’s a case of sorting out the foot issue, or deciding to play through the pain and sort out the foot issue in the summer, while nursing the hamstring and making sure that he comes back sharper than he did the last time.”