TWENTY FOUR-year-old Julio Arca has admitted he is beginning to feel his age.

Arca celebrated his birthday only last month but the Argentinian midfielder is fast becoming one of Mick McCarthy's most experienced players

The Black Cats' classy playmaker celebrates five years on Wearside in the summer and admitted he started feeling his age when McCarthy signed several youngsters in the summer.

"Every Friday we play old players against young players, and I'm in the old team," said Arca. "There are too many young players. I am 24 now and I can't believe that. I have been here a long time.

"But it is good to see all these young players here because they all want to play every game and they give 100 per cent to show the manager."

There were more than several eyebrows raised when the Sunderland boss took a chance on the inexperienced Stephen Elliott, Dean Whitehead and Liam Lawrence. But Sunderland's £3.5m signing from Argentinos Juniors says the manager has been justified in his signings and points to the Black Cats' league position as evidence.

"Some people maybe thought he was making a mistake in playing too many young players," said Arca, who signed a new two-year contract last November.

"But he has shown everyone he is right and the young players are doing really well. You can see the team in the top three fighting for automatic promotion and we are doing really well.

"The team spirit is really good at the moment especially when we win games and the confidence is sky high."

Arca believes nine more wins from the remaining 14 games will clinch automatic promotion for the Wearsiders.

"We had a good game last Saturday against Watford and we have a chance in the next three games to get more points because everybody knows April is going to be really hard for us," added Arca.

With the Premiership now within touching distance the fans' favourite confessed he never thought he would ever see it as a Sunderland player.

When the Black Cats were relegated it was thought Arca was one of the most likely players in the club to move on - given he was among their most saleable assets.

But two years on the popular Argentine is still at the club and leading the charge for promotion.

"I never thought it was going to happen again especially when we got relegated because I wasn't playing very much and it wasn't a good time for me," admitted Arca.

"But things change, one day you are at the top and the next you are at the bottom so you don't know what is going to happen.

"When you are not in the team you think you could be leaving, but the new manager came to the club and give me a chance and in a few weeks everything changed for me. I had a good season last year and this season we have bigger ambitions than last.

"At the moment things are going well for me and the team and I have forgotten about things that happened a few years ago. At the moment I am concentrating on getting promotion for the club."

Meanwhile, Kevin Kyle's involvement in Sunderland's bid for promotion still remains unclear.

The 24-year-old striker visited a specialist on Thursday hoping for the all clear to step up his rehabilitation programme. But the Scottish international returned to Wearside under doctor's orders to rest for another two weeks, after the examination revealed more inflammation to his hip. A further visit to the specialist is pencilled in for two week's time.

The big Scot revealed the pain of watching the Black Cats' successful season is just as excruciating as his troublesome hip.

"Last season I played 44 games and I was part of everything; whereas this year I have been a part of nothing," said a disappointed Kyle. "I played seven games at the beginning of the season and I feltI did OK in a couple of them but I wasn't 100 per cent.

"It's been hard not being involved. Last season we had a great chance to get promoted but we didn't. This season it looks a lot better prospect and it would be a lovely thing to get promoted.

"But come the end of the season and I've not played my part is the thing which gets me down the most. It's not the fact that I've got a bad hip because that will get fixed. But I got back (for reserves) and pulled on a Sunderland shirt and scored a goal and I think right, here we go, but now I'm back where I started."