Nathan Broadhead is on the road to recovery following a hamstring injury.
Broadhead posted a video on his Instagram account on Friday running on a treadmill, which is positive news for fans. He was originally expected to be out for at least three months and possibly for the remainder of the season.
The on-loan Everton striker has returned to Goodison Park while he undergoes rehab after suffering a torn hamstring in Sunderland’s Carabao Cup quarter-final defeat at Arsenal just before Christmas.
The Bangor-born forward had been in fine form for the Black Cats, scoring 8 goals in all competitions and 6 goals in his last 6 appearances for the League One club.
Sunderland manager Lee Johnson said last week that Broadhead will be fit to play again this season and news at the beginning of January that the 23-year-old would not need surgery, meant the timescale was expected to be closer to a three-month estimate, which would suggest a possible return in late March.
The video of Broadhead back on the treadmill gives and a much more promising update for the forward.
Lee Johnson said: “Nathan has been doing his rehab at Everton and we’ve stayed in touch with them on a regular basis.
“He seems to be progressing quite nicely from all the intel we are getting back from Everton, which is good.
“It’s the best-case scenario at the moment.
“I can’t give you a definite date [for his return] but Everton are very happy with his progress, and that is great to hear.
“I’m confident that he will play for us again before the end of the season – and I’m very, very happy with that.”
Had Broadhead been ruled out for the season, there was a chance that Sunderland and Everton might have decided to terminate his loan which would give the Black Cats.
But Johnson is pleased that that is now a non-issue because the player is expected to recover before the end of the campaign.
He said: “That [a recall] won’t happen now.
“The only chance that that would have happened was if the player was out for the rest of the season and if Everton were unbelievably generous and called him back, or because they wanted to play him.”
