SUNDERLAND have made the decision to cut short Frederik Alves loan spell with the defender returning to parent club West Ham United.

Alves made ten appearances during his time with the Black Cats but couldn’t force his way into the team ahead of the likes of Callum Doyle, Tom Flanagan and Bailey Wright in defence.

The move comes as no surprise with the club stating that Alves had ‘disciplinary issues’ which forced him to miss the Carabao Cup quarter final against Arsenal. However, the lack of game time has proved to be the final straw.

Sporting director Kristjaan Speakman said: “Throughout Freddie’s loan, we have remained in regular dialogue with him and West Ham United regarding his programme.

“He’s progressed and he’s matured off the pitch, but he’s missing the frequency of games required at this stage of his development and we collectively understand the need for him to be playing regular football.

“Having reviewed this with his parent club, we agreed that it is the natural solution for him to return in January to plan out the second part of the season.

“We thank West Ham United and we wish Freddie well in his career.”