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Sunderland captain Corry Evans has spoken about his goal to return to first team football before the end of the season.

Speaking to the official Sunderland AFC YouTube channel, Evans said: “I think it’s just to get back to a level I’m happy with in terms of fitness [and] trying to come back and get some minutes in the first team if I can by the end of the season.”

The Northern Irish midfielder suffered a cruciate ligament injury at the start of 2023 and hasn’t played in the Championship since then.

Speaking about his rehabilitation, Evans said: “It’s been really difficult, more like mentally than anything.

“Being away from football for that long of a time, you just concentrate on getting fit and getting back to a level that you can.

“It’s a lot of long hours in the gym during the summer when all the lads are off.”

Aside from rehab, Evans has been using his time off to work on other footballing projects.

“I managed to start my coaching badges last summer. I’ll be doing the next part of that this summer.

“It’s been a good way for me to concentrate on that side of the game.”

Last week Evans played 45 minutes in Sunderland’s U21 match against their Newcastle counterparts.

He scored one of Sunderland’s two goals in the 3-2 defeat at the Academy of Light.

Evans said: “[It was] nice to get back on the pitch.

“I’ve been training for the best part of two or three weeks and it was nice to finally play a game.

“Games are a lot different to training with the intensity and challenges and so on.

“Hopefully I can carry on the progression of my return to playing in the first team by playing a couple more games in the reserves.”

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