SUNDERLAND continue to face frustration in their efforts to bolster their strikeforce, with Tony Mowbray admitting he doesn't know where things stand with the player the Black Cats were close to signing last week.

Mowbray remains confident, however, that Sunderland will add a new centre-forward to their ranks ahead of next Friday's transfer deadline.

And he's revealed a promising update on Ross Stewart and Eliezer Mayenda, with the pair closing in on a return to action.

Reports coming out of Ukraine on Thursday morning claimed Sunderland had agreed a deal to sign Nasiriy Rusyn, who has been a leading target throughout the summer - but Mowbray said he had "no new information on that".

He also provided an update on the deal that was believed to be close a week ago. Last Thursday, Mowbray said he expected a striker to be signed the following day, and the head coach said the same on Saturday after the win over Rotherham.

But there's been no update since, and Mowbray said: "I honestly don't know where that stands at this point, and that's me being honest.

"I thought it was done, and I wouldn't have said so otherwise. I'd spoken to the manager and he'd spoken to the boy, and so we thought we were ready to get it done.

"It didn't happen, I think there has been an issue in terms of his contractual situation there and it's become complicated. They obviously thought that was going to resolved easily [and then he could move], but that wasn't the case.

"Whether it's going to happen or not, or whether he ends up up somewhere else, I don't know."

Mowbray confirmed last week that Fulham's Jay Stansfield - who is wanted on loan by several Championship clubs - is one of four strikers on Sunderland's radar.

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Rusyn, who plays for Ukrainian top flight side Zorya Lugansk, is understood to be another.

Mowbray said: "I haven't got any new information on that. We're all working hard behind the scenes. We're all frustrated.

"Everybody is working really hard to try and get deals and lots of deals feel like they're on the cusp. I feel like I've sat here for the last three or four press conferences and said tomorrow someone will be in and they haven't. I don't tell lies.

"We're trying really hard to get these deals done and they're not easy. It's always time against money. As the window rolls down some clubs realise this deal might fall away and then it becomes more urgent.

"I have to sit here and be confident that by the end of this window we'll have some strikers in the building and by the end of the international break, the likes of Ross Stewart who's out on the grass kicking balls about every day now, who's to say he's not about ready.

"The young French lad Eliezer is telling me he's only two or three weeks away as well."

Stewart has been out of action since suffering a serious Achilles injury in January, while Mayenda injured his hamstring the day after joining the club in the summer.