Sunderland handed player boost ahead of League One play-off final | OneFootball

Sunderland have welcomed Leon Dajaku back to training ahead of next weekend’s League One play-off final against Wycombe Wanderers, with the German in contention to be included in Alex Neil’s squad at Wembley against the Chairboys.

The 21-year-old was a summer arrival from Bundesliga outfit Union Berlin, who had only just turned the forward’s loan move from global giants Bayern Munich into a permanent one.

They subsequently sent Dajaku to the Black Cats for the 2021-22 campaign, but crucially the Wearsiders had their own option inserted into the deal to make it permanent at the end of the season should they wish.

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Under Lee Johnson, Dajaku featured from the start a number of times in the third tier, scoring four times and also notching four assists.

Dajaku has not been able to make too much of an impression on Neil yet though as he has been battling with an illness – one which forced him to return home to Germany for tests, which proved his issue to be more severe than the initial expectation of tonsillitis.

Having played just three times under Neil, Dajaku was absent for the final seven regular matches of the season and both play-off encounters against Sheffield Wednesday, but he returns to the fold as an option next Saturday.

The Verdict

In the second leg against Sheffield Wednesday, he had Patrick Roberts, Alex Pritchard AND Jack Clarke all starting behind Ross Stewart, and when all three of those are on song then that’s a lot of creativity.

There was also Nathan Broadhead and Elliot Embleton to call from the bench, whilst Aiden McGeady couldn’t even make the matchday squad, which shows how much depth the Scot has to work with.

Dajaku will give Neil even more of a headache going into the play-off final selection-wise – it wouldn’t be a surprise though to see the German miss out simply due to the numbers.