TONY MOWBRAY has admitted he is reluctant to sign a free agent to solve Sunderland’s striker shortage because he does not want to put a barrier between his side’s recent signings and a place in the first team.

The Sunderland boss has been reassessing his attacking options in the wake of the thigh injury to Ross Stewart that is set to keep the Black Cats’ leading goalscorer on the sidelines for up to two months.

With Ellis Simms now the only senior striker on Sunderland’s books, Mowbray could delve into the free-agent market to recruit an experienced forward on a short-term deal.

However, with Amad Diallo, Jewison Bennette, Abdoullah Ba and Edouard Michut all having arrived in the final week of the summer transfer window, the Black Cats boss is mindful of the need to give the youngsters an opportunity to prove their worth once they have settled into their new surrounds.

While none of the quartet are out-and-out strikers, Diallo, Bennette and Michut are all capable of playing in advanced attacking-midfield positions, and Mowbray does not really want to limit their first-team chances by bringing in another player just to provide short-term cover for Stewart.

“What I think is wise at this moment is to give the team the opportunity, the chance to show we’re a good team with or without (Stewart),” said the recently-appointed head coach. “We’ve signed four new young players and, at some stage, they need the opportunity to come in and make the squad and try to impact the team. I think they can, so let’s wait and see. They’re a week or two away, in my mind, from coming in and lighting everything up.

"You see flashes from them in training, how fast and direct they are. We’re taking them to all the games to they understand the Championship and what’s required, the demands on the whole team. They need opportunities at some stage. They’re young players that we’ve bought, and we’ll give them the chance when it’s right.”

Middlesbrough raided the free-agent market last week, signing Massimo Luongo following his release from Sheffield Wednesday to provide cover for Jonny Howson in defensive midfield, and attacking options exist that Sunderland could pursue.

Matej Vydra, Wilfried Bony and Ross McCormack are all currently without a club, but Mowbray feels there can be negatives as well as positives when you decide to recruit a free agent.

“It has to be the right player,” he said. “That’s in my mind, the recruitment team’s mind, Kristjaan’s (Speakman) and the owner’s mind. Players who are out of contract, they have to fit into the culture of the club.

“When you sign a player in the transfer window, you’ve done your work on them and you know that they are going to come in and fit into your culture. They know the parameters of what’s expected, you’ve had those conversations with them.

“If you draft in a free agent who wasn’t even on your radar in the window, just because they play up front, you could get it disastrously wrong.”

Simms is set to continue as the central striker when Sunderland return to action at Reading on Wednesday – the Football League programme is expected to resume as scheduled this week after a weekend hiatus to mark the death of Queen Elizabeth II – with Patrick Roberts and Alex Pritchard poised to support the Everton loanee as attacking midfielders.

Diallo, who has joined on a season-long loan from Manchester United, is an alternative attacking-midfield option, with Bennette, a permanent addition from Costa Rican side Herediano, also knocking on the first-team door.

Bennette has spent most of his career playing as a left winger, and while Sunderland are currently playing with a formation that features a left wing-back rather than an out-and-out winger, Mowbray envisages him slotting in somewhere down the left-hand side.

“Jewison is someone who looks to me as if he’s going to play off the left side,” he said. “Now, at the moment, we don’t have a winger in our system, yet Jack Clarke has shown what a wonderful job he can do in a wing-back role. We’ll have to see how the team unfolds, and we’ll have to show flexibility.

“He’s (Bennette) so fast and direct. He picks it up and drives with it, his feet are so fast. He shifts it from left to right and there’s no change, he shifts his shoulders and he’s past people.

“He doesn’t know much about the Championship yet, and that’s why I’m taking him to matches. He has to watch it and see the physicality of the game and the demands on the players to run back as well as forward."