McCarthy happy for Elliott to link up with Irish squad

Elliott returned to action after more than three months out with a first half display for the reserves on Wednesday night and emerged unscathed.

A decision on whether he will be fit to play in tomorrow's Premiership match at Birmingham City tomorrow will be made today.

Elliott, whose last appearance for Sunderland was on November 5, has been included in the Ireland squad for next week's friendly with Sweden at Lansdowne Road.

That will be the first time the squad have met up with new coach Steve Staunton and his assistant Sir Bobby Robson and, even if he does not play, McCarthy is looking at ways of allowing his young striker to travel home.

The Sunderland boss, a former Ireland player and manager himself, recalls the moment when he was left out of Jack Charlton's first squad in 1985 after he succeeded Eoin Hand.

McCarthy sympathises with Elliott, even suggesting if he is deemed fit enough he could play against the Swedes on Wednesday.

"Stephen might benefit from going over and just being there," said McCarthy of a player who has four caps for his country. "When all the players got together when Jack was the manager, I wasn't in that squad and I felt I had had my nose pushed out of joint a little bit.

"I think it will be great for him to have been selected, especially when he hasn't played since November. I have spoken to Steve Staunton. He's not bringing him in to play for 90 minutes, that won't happen. He's not fit enough.

"But it still might be nice for him to travel over, to be involved and to see everyone. It might give him a lift having been out for a long time. If he's fit enough, he might take some part in the game."

Despite only turning 22 in January, Elliott's knack of scoring goals has been sadly lacking from Sunderland's forward play.

The former Manchester City youngster has scored two of the six goals scored by all the Sunderland strikers.

McCarthy, keen to make sure his player is fit before throwing him into action against the Blues, believes he has an out-an-out goal-getter in his squad now that Elliott looks to have put a stress fracture of the back behind him.

"We've missed his ability to put the ball in the net. He was one of the players who, when we sat down in the summer and looked at everything, we knew would score goals," said McCarthy, knowing Elliott scored 16 in the Championship last season.

"We looked at some of the Championship players and thought that some of the better ones would compete in the Premier League. I thought our better ones would. It has been proven when they have been in there. He is one of those."

As Elliott prepares to make his first team comeback, McCarthy has put plans in place to offload one of his transfer failures.

Andy Gray, a £1.1m signing from Sheffield United in the summer, is being targeted by Derby and Burnley and McCarthy expects something to happen when the player has recovered from an Achilles problem next week.

But he is willing to do business only if a loan will automatically turn into a permanent deal in the summer.

Sunderland are likely to hand a debut to Rory Delap at St Andrews after his recovery from an Achilles problem.

Delap has been sidelined since making the move from Southampton in January but is due to travel with the squad today. McCarthy, though, was not revealing where he would play.

"Rory's a versatile player. That's a good thing to have," said McCarthy.

"He's a good, powerful, quick attacking midfield player. Someone who I know from the past.

"Once he gets in the side and he plays, let's see him stay in the side. That will determine where his best position is."

Meanwhile, right-back Stephen Wright could be facing an operation which would rule him out for the rest of the season.

Wright is due to see a specialist to determine whether or not surgery on the ankle injury he has been carrying in recent weeks is necessary.

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