LEE JOHNSON expects new signing Patrick Roberts to be in the squad for Sunderland’s weekend trip to Bolton Wanderers.

Roberts’ arrival on a permanent transfer from Manchester City was confirmed on Friday, but while his registration went through in time for him to be involved in Saturday’s game with Portsmouth, the attacking midfielder was not in the 18-man squad for Sunderland’s 1-0 win.

Having returned from France, where he spent the first half of the season kicking his heels on the sidelines at Troyes, Roberts was unable to do any serious training last week, and after a discussion with his medical staff, Johnson decided not to select the 24-year-old at the weekend.

However, with no midweek game this week and a full series of sessions planned on the training pitch at the Academy of Light, the Black Cats boss expects Roberts to be available for Saturday’s game with a Bolton side that will be buoyed by their back-to-back wins over Ipswich and Shrewsbury.

“He’s (Roberts) not too bad (in terms of his fitness),” said Johnson. “He was chomping at the bit, wanting to be on the bench (against Portsmouth). We had a big discussion, quite a strong debate between all of us in terms of the football side of things and the physical department. The head of performance and sports science were all involved.

“I think the biggest problem is that he’d probably been idle for six or seven days while this was all being sorted out. We felt that with the tempo, and the way we expect our team to play, it probably wasn’t the right game.

“Therefore, we’re planning to give him eight or nine days of effective work, but I would hope that if it runs smooth, he would potentially be available for the bench next week.”