Sunderland coach David Moyes has confirmed that defender Lamine Kone cannot be sold until the club signs a replacement.

The former Everton boss is eager to add to his ranks after taking over from Sam Allardyce last month, following the latter’s decision to take the England national job.

Although Moyes has added Donald Love and Paddy McNair to his squad in the last few weeks, he is still struggling to recruit with the transfer window set to close in two weeks’ time.

Kone is looking to join Everton before the end of the window but Moyes insists the £18million rated centre-back cannot go anywhere until he is replaced first.

The powerful defender impressed in Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Manchester City and Moyes is open to him staying, but says that if he wants to move on, any sale will have to wait.

He told the Daily Mirror: “I’ve told him if he stays, we will honour what was said to him and we will give him a new contract on September 1.

“The big thing is we are short of players, whether it is centre-halves, midfield players or full-backs.

We are short of players and I will not be letting anyone go who I think can contribute to the team. And Kone makes a big contribution to the team.

“If I think I can do things in other ways then I will have to think about it. But at the moment the market has made it really difficult to do that.”