SUNDERLAND manager Martin O'Neill has reiterated his desire to keep Craig Gardner at the club and admitted the homesick midfielder has been unlucky not to start more games since he arrived on Wearside.

Gardner hit a sumptuous 25-yard volley five minutes from time to wrap up the win for Sunderland after Stephane Sessegnon had given the Black Cats a first-half lead against Swansea City.

Since making his £6m move from Birmingham City in the summer, Gardner has started just seven Premier League games - with only two of those coming under O'Neill.

That has hardly helped the 25-year-old settle into life in the North-East and it is understood the homesick midfielder is keen on a swift move back to the Midlands.

There has already been tentative interest in Gardner from Wolves and West Brom, and both clubs have sent scouts to watch his progress.

With eight days left before the transfer window closes on January 31, there is still time for both clubs to make formal approaches, but as things stand the Black Cats boss insists there has been no concrete offers for the 25-year-old.

Prior to his arrival at the Stadium of Light, O'Neill worked with Gardner during his reign at Aston Villa and the Sunderland boss admits the Solihull-born midfielder has been unfortunate not to be involved more in his starting XI.

"He's unlucky not to be in the side. He's done very well for us," the Black Cats boss said.

"He's played out of position for us. I thought he did very well against Peterborough, he came on against Chelsea and missed the goal, which I could have killed him for!

"But overall, just to clarify, it's not like he's coming in every day and saying he's wanting to leave.

"He can consider himself unfortunate not to be in the team, but if you look at it, Keiren (Westwood) went out of the team with illness, he's come back from illness and Mignolet has done very very well. Sometimes players can be in the team on merit and go out of the team because things aren't going for them, but other times players are genuinely unlucky and Craig is one of them, but he's got a good chance of starting next week against Middlesbrough.

"We want him to stay at the football club. At this moment there's been no concrete offers, there's been interest from teams in and around that area (Midlands), but nothing concrete. I wouldn't want him to be leaving.

"His heart is there. He's obviously very family orientated, he's never really been away from home before, but it is England. You can get from one place to another you know. It's not difficult. It's not as if he's playing in Saudi Arabia!

"Nobody wants him to leave the football club and hopefully the homesickness is something he can look at in a month or two."

Gardner's 85th minute strike put the game beyond Swansea, but the visitors had dominated possession throughout.

The Black Cats were guilty of giving the ball away, particularly in midfield, but O'Neill believes the fact his side won despite not dominating the game is an encouraging sign.

"We felt that things caught up with us a little bit. We can do much much better in terms of when we have possession of the ball. It can be a bit disconcerting when we've done so well to get it and then we've given it away, but we can improve and we know that.

"The players are well aware of that. But to win today was really big.

"In terms of playing, we had more possession against Chelsea than we did against Swansea and that was at Stamford Bridge, so that's kind of surprising.

"It's very encouraging. I hope I certainly don't sound like we've lost 5-0. We haven't. We've won the game and I'm delighted. But I sensed that it was going to be that kind of afternoon. We can improve and we know we can improve, but it was really excellent to win again."

O'Neill will hope to find out the extent of Nicklas Bendtner's eye injury today after the striker was forced off in the tenth minute against Swansea.

The Dane was caught in the face by the high boot of Swans defender Angel Rangel and left the field clutching a pad over his left eye.

The Sunderland boss revealed after the game that the striker was set to undergo a scan and admitted there was concern over the severity of the injury.

He said: "Nicklas is very sore and his eye is really bad.

"He couldn't see anything out of it when he came off the field.

"He will have a scan and the doctor is hoping that there is just a lot of tissue in there, but there is a possibility that he might have cracked something.

"We won't know until after the scan. But he's not great."