JOHN MENSAH expects to travel to Wearside over the weekend after successfully passing a medical that should seal a season-long loan move to Sunderland.

The Ghana international hopes to receive his visa today and has not given up on making his debut at Norwich City in the Carling Cup on Monday night.

Mensah underwent a medical in Lyon on Tuesday, but he has had to remain patient before completing the move while he waits for his visa to be stamped.

The Olympique Lyonnais defender is unlikely to figure against Blackburn tomorrow, but he does hope to figure at Carrow Road.

“It is true I was given a document to sign indicating that I am going to go on loan to Sunderland,” said Mensah.

“All documents will be sent to FIFA for approval after the signing and Steve Bruce has confirmed that up to Friday I will get my UK Visa.”

Mensah’s comments were posted on his official website, which also went on to reveal expectations “to travel to London over the weekend to play for Sunderland.”

Manager Steve Bruce has been working on bringing Mensah to the North-East for a number of weeks and the loan agreement is with a view to a permanent £6m arrangement next summer.

While Bruce has been successful in filling a number of other holes in his squad after spending almost £25m, Mensah represents his first defensive recruit.

He still hopes one more will follow, with Manchester City’s Richard Dunne the most likely candidate.

Bruce, though, could soon be able to consider recalling Scotland international Craig Gordon between the posts.

Gordon missed last weekend’s win at Bolton and the defeat to Chelsea with the knee injury which has prevented him from playing through pre-season.

However, the £9m man is confident that his return to the squad will arrive sooner rather than later.

He said: “I’m getting there on the injury front. The knee feels fine, but when I’m getting back into training my body’s doing a lot of work that it’s not used to doing, as it’s been over three months since I trained.

“It’s taking a little bit of time to get used to those rigours and getting used to putting the muscles through the rigours of what they need to do every day.”

■ Hull manager Phil Brown admits the thrashing by Tottenham has emphasised his need to strengthen the squad.

The Tigers were crushed 5- 1 at the KC Stadium.

Brown has spent most of the summer transfer window trying to bring in fresh faces but has missed out on a number of targets.

Real Madrid striker Alvaro Negredo is the latest player to turn down a move to Hull and Brown now seems unlikely to rest until the September 1 deadline passes.

Brown said: ‘‘We came up against classy opposition that showed us how to play the game.

‘‘We are probably a million miles away from that at this point in time, the scoreline suggests that.

‘‘There is no excuse for not working hard enough and not working towards the gameplan and one or two didn’t.’’