Sunderland boss Dick Advocaat has confirmed Jordi Gomez will miss the start of the season as he continues his recovery from a knee injury.

The Spaniard has not been able to feature for the Black Cats during their pre-season preparations having sustained a small fracture to his knee-cap during the closing stages of the previous campaign.

The training ground accident forced the former Wigan man to sit out the final four games of last season as Sunderland secured their top-flight status.

Gomez’s recovery has been slow and he was only able to take part in light training during the Wearsider’s pre-season trip to the United States.

Advocaat has now confirmed that there is no chance of Gomez featuring in the first game of the Premier League season against Leicester City but hopes he will not miss too much of the early stages of the campaign.

Advocaat said: “No, Gomez will not be ready for the start of the season.

“It will come too soon for him with the training.

“But he will be an option when he is fit. He has qualities which we can use.”

Advocaat went on to say that he does have an otherwise fully fit squad to choose from ahead of the new campaign getting underway at the King Power Stadium on August 8.

Goalkeeper Costel Pantilimon had missed the start of pre-season training due to a knee injury but is now back to full fitness and is likely to feature in the club’s final friendly game against Doncaster next week.

Sunderland then travel to Leicester for a game they are available at 3.75 to win, with the Foxes installed as the 2.05 favourites and the draw at 3.25.