Sunderland: Tony Mowbray makes bold prediction on Luke O'Nien

O’Nien has established himself as one of the Black Cats’ first-choice centre-halves under Mowbray, with the head coach having been hugely impressed with the 28-year-old’s commitment and professionalism as well as his footballing talent.

Previous Sunderland managers have regarded O’Nien as a useful utility player, capable of filling gaps in various parts of the field, but Mowbray is adamant he will not be moving the former Wycombe man out of the backline.

• READ: Sunderland's 2022 Review of the Year - A year of major progress, both on and off the field

He expects him to continue playing a pivotal role in the second half of the season, and is adamant O’Nien is on a journey that could take him all the way to the top-flight regardless of what happens with Sunderland in the next couple of years.

“I don’t think I’ve ever managed a better human being than Luke in terms of just doing everything right,” said Mowbray, who takes his Sunderland side to Wigan Athletic tomorrow evening for the final game of 2022. “He’s an amazing guy. If anything, he overworks the coaches because he wants to watch every touch he’s had in every game, to see what he can do better, then he wants to go out and practice and practice and practice.

“I didn’t really study his history, but he started at Wycombe as a young boy and he’s made massive strides in his career. If Sunderland don’t keep progressing, then I’m pretty sure that kid will still find a way of making sure he gets to the Premier League himself because he’s such an amazing character.”

O’Nien has spent most of the last couple of months playing alongside Danny Batth at the heart of Sunderland’s back four, but with Batth having suffered a calf injury in the draw at Hull, Dan Ballard returned to the starting line-up for Monday’s win over Blackburn.

Ballard started the first three games of the season, but the found himself sidelined for almost four months after suffering a serious foot injury during August’s draw with QPR.

He returned to the substitutes’ bench during the draw with Hull at the MKM Stadium, and Mowbray was always confident he would hit the ground running as he was restored to the starting line-up on Boxing Day.

“Good players can hit the ground running,” said Mowbray, who is hoping Batth will be available to return at the start of the new years. “Dan’s still got to get some stuff in his legs – he gave away the free-kick that led to their goal (against Blackburn) because he got caught turning.

Sunderland centre-half Dan Ballard (Image: Ian Horrocks)

“But having managed against him when he was at Millwall last year, I know how fast, strong and dominant he is. I see him in training and he doesn’t take any prisoners when he’s training, he’s a really good player.”

Aji Alese joined Danny Batth on the sidelines ahead of Monday’s game, and the pair have been joined on the injury list by Lynden Gooch and Dennis Cirkin, both of whom suffered problems during the Blackburn win.

Whereas for most of the first half of the season, Mowbray was plugging gaps in the attacking third, he now finds himself having to deal with a number of defensive absentees, but he is confident he can come up with solutions for whatever problems are thrown his way.

“It feels like we’re starting to get everybody back at the top end of the pitch,” he said. “(Alex) Pritchard is not far away now, he’s been out on the training ground running. Elliot Embleton is going to be out for a while, but it’s great to have two centre-forwards back, and it’s great to have (Jack) Clarke, (Patrick) Roberts and Amad (Diallo) as well as Pritchard to pick from.

“It looks talented, fast and technical at the top end of the pitch, but defensively, we now have some issues we’re going to have to deal with in the next couple of days and see what we’re going to look like at Wigan. That’s part of football. We spent nearly three months without any strikers, but we found a way, and we will find a way without four pretty key defenders if that’s what it is.”