SUNDERLAND are considering a double transfer raid on this weekend’s opponents West Brom, with midfield duo Jonathan Greening and James Morrison believed to be on Ricky Sbragia’s summer shopping list.

Despite the Baggies struggling all season to adapt to life in the Premier League the former Middlesbrough pair have emerged with credit.

Greening is well known to the Black Cats manager who was instrumental in giving the midfielder his first break in football with York City before recommending him to Manchester United.

After failing to establish himself at Old Trafford the 30-year-old, who hails from Scarborough, enjoyed an impressive 99-game spell with Middlesbrough before making the switch to West Brom in 2004.

Darlington-born Morrison has come of age this season after a series of eye-catching displays in the centre and right side of midfield alerted a number of Premier League mangers to his availability, if and when Tony Mowbray’s side make a quick return to the Championship.

Victory for Sunderland this weekend would almost certainly seal West Brom’s fate and Sbragia would face competition for Morrison and Greening should he follow up his initial interest with a firm bid.

In the meantime, Sbragia was assessing the fitness of his current squad as midfielders Dean Whitehead and Kieran Richardson both returned to full training this week.

Whitehead has been sidelined with a calf problem while Richardson failed to impress during a substitute appearance in last Saturday’s victory over Hull City.

With Steed Malbranque also eager to return to the starting XI, Sbragia is weighing up whether to disrupt his winning team to accommodate the fit-again trio.

“We’ve got Kieran and Deano back in training this week but it’s the age old problem, do you change a winning team?” wondered the manager.

“It’ll give me something to think about in terms of selection.

The choice won’t be easy but these are the sort of problems every manager wants. We’ll see how they go in training and go from there.

“Deano wanted to play on Saturday but he couldn’t have been any more than 70 per cent fit and you’ve got to be sensible sometimes in situations like those.

“Kieran will be back in full training and I expect him to be available for the weekend and I expect Dean to be there or thereabouts too.’’ The Sunderland boss may be tempted to employ Richardson in an attacking left midfield berth as he looks to secure a double over West Brom after taking a 4-0 victory in December.

Meanwhile, former Sunderland manager Roy Keane has emerged as a candidate for the managerial vacancy at Queens Park Rangers.