Sunderland manager Steve Bruce is hopeful of seeing new signing Cristian Riveros arrive at the Stadium of Light in the next 48 hours.
The Paraguay international has been waiting for international clearance to link up with the Black Cats and has been training in South America.
But Bruce is expecting Riveros to be available for the final pre-season friendly against German side Hoffenheim on Sunday.
He told the Sunderland Echo: “We are still looking for Riveros to come through the door. We don’t know where his passport is – somewhere between Paraguay and New York.
“But we expect him to be in Wednesday or Thursday. It’s not a hitch – it’s a delay that we probably expected because we had a similar experience when we brought Paulo Da Silva over last summer.
“They need to get their passport stamped and visa changed and with having the World Cup in the middle of it didn’t help – especially with the getting to the quarter-final.
“If they’d got knocked out in the early rounds it would have helped.”