Nazariy Rusyn is preparing to be fully fit for Sunderland’s upcoming pre-season schedule.
Sunderland begin their pre-season training today and each player will be striving to impress Regis Le Bris ahead of the new season.
While the Black Cats will be eager to snap up a new striker this summer, the current crop will also be looking to earn themselves a place in the starting line-up.
The four strikers failed to impress last term, though Rusyn was arguably the most impactful as he picked up three goal contributions in nine starts and 12 substitute appearances.
The Ukrainian often found himself down the pecking order though, and a difficult campaign led to rumours of an early exit from Wearside.
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Rusyn ‘likes it’ in Sunderland despite difficult start
However, Rusyn has now played down talk of a summer departure and has admitted he ‘likes it’ in Sunderland.
Speaking to Sunderland Echo, the attacker said: “It was a difficult season for me. I moved to a completely new country and a new team. Before the move, I hardly trained for about a month and a half – only in the gym, because I had problems with my groin muscles and had to heal them.
“When I arrived, they were already playing the seventh round, so I slowly started to get acquainted with the championship and get in shape. The language also played a role – it was very important, and I didn’t know it.
“In general, football is not only a football field but also a lot more beyond it. The first four months were very difficult for me. Then it got better, but then I got injured, it happens, it’s football. I don’t want the injury to serve as any kind of excuse for me, so I’ll just state that the season was unsuccessful for me.”
When asked about the transfer rumours, Rusyn added: “I like it here, my family likes it here, so everything is fine. I think Sunderland is a good city for family life.”
Can the Ukrainian become the main man?
While we don’t know a great deal about what Le Bris wants from his players, there are suggestions that he likes to play with forwards who have pace and good movement off the ball.
Rusyn’s pace and movement was arguably the factor that gave supporters faith in him last term, even when he struggled to score.
He will be eager to get in the French coach’s good books, but if he can’t build on last term’s goal tally then he could very quickly find himself out of the picture all together.