TONY MOWBRAY is confident Ross Stewart is happy and settled at Sunderland, although the Black Cats boss concedes he might not be able to select his side’s leading goalscorer until after the international break.

Having impressed in League One and made his senior international debut with Scotland last season, Stewart was the subject of sustained transfer speculation in the summer, with Rangers one of a number of clubs to hold an interest in acquiring his services.

The striker has maintained his fine form in the early weeks of the current campaign, scoring five goals in his first seven matches before suffering a thigh injury ahead of this month’s Tees-Wear derby defeat at Middlesbrough.

His contract is due to expire in the summer, and while Sunderland have the option to extend it by another 12 months, the Black Cats hierarchy are understandably keen to tie the 26-year-old down to a new deal.

Mowbray has discussed Stewart’s future plans with the striker during his rehabilitation period, and while he accepts he is a Premier League player of the future, he is also adamant that this would be the wrong time to be agitating for a move away from Wearside, a view he is convinced Stewart shares.

“I think he thinks he’s in the right place for him and his career,” said Mowbray, ahead of this afternoon’s home game with Preston. “I talked to him about the vehicle he’s got here.

“If he’s going to keep scoring goals at the ratio he has been scoring at, is this the right vehicle for him to showcase himself? I think he believes that it is. Which other stadium in this league has 40,000 fans hero worshipping you if you keep banging the goals in and working as hard as he does?

“It’s a fantastic place for him to be. Hopefully, he can help this club progress to the Premier League over the coming years. If not, and he keeps banging in goals, then the phone will ring from the Premier League for him. Let’s see how that develops going forward. He’s a good kid, and he’s very much on board with the club.”

He remains some way away from full fitness though, with the latest assessments suggesting he might be ready to return by the middle of next month.

That would coincide with the shutdown for the World Cup in Qatar, and Mowbray accepts there is little point trying to rush him back if he is potentially only going to be able to play in one game before the Championship breaks for three weeks.

“I think he’ll be on the grass before the World Cup break, it’s just a case of how quickly we feel he’s up to speed and how quickly he feels right in himself,” said Mowbray. “What you wouldn’t want to do is rush him back thinking, ‘We need him in this game – the one game before the international break’.

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“In that scenario, you might as well give him the extra three weeks to get ready and make sure he’s fully up to speed on the training ground and try to unleash him against Millwall in the first game back. We’ll see.”

With Stewart and Ellis Sims both absent, Mowbray has discussed the possibility of recruiting a free agent with sporting director Kristjaan Speakman. However, the pair are in agreement that there is no one currently available who would fit the bill.

“It’s not about just bringing a player in and trying to find a centre-forward,” he said. “I think the team has shown we don’t really need a centre-forward – what we need is bodies, really, and if the right body is not there for us, then you don’t just bring them in for the sake of it because the dynamic of the group is the most important thing.

“As we sit here at the moment, then I think Kristjaan, myself and the staff all believe we should just push on with what we’ve got. We’ve got attacking players.”