Sunderland manager Steve Bruce has made an approach to sign Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart on loan.
Craig Gordon has been sidelined with a broken arm and Martin Fulop is set to join Ipswich, leaving Bruce keen to land a goalkeeper with Premier League experience.
And the Black Cats boss is now hoping to land Hart, who impressed during a temporary switch to Birmingham last season and has admitted he would be willing to go out on loan once again if he cannot unseat regular City number one Shay Given.
Bruce told the Sunderland Echo: “We’ve asked the question of City and we now just have to wait and see what they say. But the timetable is not up to us on when we get an answer, it’s up to them.
“With these new 25-man squad rules, clubs don’t have to name their confirmed squads until the end of August, so if they wanted to, City could delay any decisions on their squad until then.”