TONY MOWBRAY is looking forward to welcoming Jay Matete back into the fold for the start of pre-season training this summer, with the on-loan midfielder set to spend the next few months battling for silverware with Plymouth Argyle.

Matete joined Plymouth on loan in January after finding his first-team opportunities extremely limited on Wearside during the first half of the season.

He has made a positive impression at Home Park, with his 17 senior appearances helping Plymouth force their way to the top of the League One table.

Sunderland are reasonably well stocked in central midfield, with Pierre Ekwah, Isaac Lihadji and Abdoullah Ba all having joined Dan Neil and Edouard Michut as first-team squad regulars in recent weeks, and skipper Corry Evans set to return from injury ahead of the start of next season, but Mowbray insists there will still be an opportunity for Matete to force his way into his plans.

“Jay can come back in pre-season and play in the games, and we will see how he does,” said the Sunderland boss. “I’m sure it will have benefited him to have played at Plymouth and then we will have discussions as to whether we see him as a big part of the group.

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“We’ll see how things go in pre-season. I don’t want to try and pre-empt that because he will have to compete with Dan Neil, Pierre Ekwah, Edouard Michut or whoever it is we have in midfield. Football is always a competition. We’ll wait and see, but he will get a chance.”

Mowbray is happy that Matete will have benefited from his time in the South-West, with Plymouth having headed into this week’s round of midweek matches with a one-point lead at the top of the table.

Matete only made one league start in the whole of the first half of the season with Sunderland, so while he might have had to drop down a level, the fact he is contributing regularly to a side pushing for promotion should only have aided his development.

“He wants to play, and that was very clear from my conversations with him before his move in January,” added Mowbray. “Why would he want to be the 19th player every week? He wants to play.

“My conversations with Jay now will be about how he's found it. I am seeing his clips every week and he got a good goal and assist the other week (against Morecambe). The lads have told me he’s enjoyed the experience, fighting for the top spot in the division at that level.”