MICK McCarthy has called a temporary halt to his striker search after watching Kevin Kyle and Marcus Stewart share four goals in their last four games.

The duo will be side by side again when Sunderland entertain league leaders Wigan this afternoon, with Kyle having fully recovered from the hip problem that was restricting his movement earlier this month.

McCarthy has spent most of the summer on the lookout for a new frontman, and his hopes of signing Newcastle's Michael Chopra on loan were dashed when the youngster moved to Barnsley earlier this week.

But with Kyle and Stewart firing on all cylinders, and youngster Chris Brown also back to full fitness, the Black Cats boss is satisfied with the firepower at his disposal.

"When I was looking for a striker it was always going to be as a supplement to Stewart and Kyle," said McCarthy. "Kevin's had a bit of an injury problem and we had to monitor that closely.

"But he's getting through games with no problem now and I know that both him and Marcus will always score goals.

"Last season we brought Darren Byfield and Tommy Smith in, and we sometimes mixed and matched a bit.

"But, at the end of the season, the best partnership we had was the one between Stewart and Kyle.

"There's been a lot of talk about strikers recently, and tomorrow we come up against one of the best partnerships in the league in Nathan Ellington and Jason Roberts.

"But we haven't got a bad front two ourselves and it's important we don't forget that. Our front two are always going to be a threat."

Kyle is back to full fitness following his hip trouble, but Julio Arca has been struggling this week because of a far more unusual problem.

The Argentinian was stung by a jellyfish as Sunderland's squad trained on Seaburn beach and, while it is easy to see the funny side of the situation now, McCarthy admits Arca wasn't laughing quite so loudly when he was attacked.

"It could only happen to us," admitted McCarthy. "I've never seen anything like it before but thankfully he should be fine for the Wigan game. "We went for a run on the beach and, for a bit of fun, had a paddle in the sea as a way of warming down.

"It was a form of ice bath I suppose, and I'm amazed anything was living in there because it was so cold.

"Julio felt something on his arm and thought it was a piece of paper, but it became obvious it was a jellyfish when it attached itself onto him. "It was quite nasty for him at the time, but we took precautions by taking him down to the hospital to get checked up.

"One of the policemen there said they were going to be putting out an ACB call for a black and white jellyfish - but I don't know if they've found it yet."

McCarthy has injury concerns of a more regular nature over full-back pairing George McCartney and Stephen Wright, and midfielder Jeff Whitley.

Wright's ankle problem is likely to keep him sidelined, while McCartney's calf strain means he is rated at 50-50 for this afternoon's game.

Whitley is expected to return after a calf problem kept him out of last weekend's defeat at Plymouth, while Mart Poom could replace Thomas Myhre in goal.

* Kevin Kyle has been named in the Scotland squad for next month's friendly in Spain and World Cup qualifier at home to Slovenia.