Kenwyne Jones is ready to lead the fight for Sunderland once again after playing down his latest injury scare.
The 24-year-old Trinidad and Tobago striker made a surprise return to the starting line-up in Wednesday night's 2-1 Carling Cup defeat by Blackburn, just a day after being sent to see a specialist.
Manager Roy Keane had ruled him out of the game after he hurt the same knee he injured in a collision with England keeper David James in June at the end of training last Friday.
The Irishman refused to second-guess the medical experts, but there were fears on Wearside that the £6million man could face another spell on the sidelines.
However, having now been given the all-clear, Jones is raring to go.
He said: "Even when I hurt myself slightly last week, I was sure it would be okay.
"For safety reasons, I went to see the specialist and he confirmed everything is fine.
"I think the management and the medical staff were more worried about it than I was.
"I have had experience with the injury now and I always had faith that what happened in training last week was nothing major.
"Everything worked out and now I'm just concentrating on pushing on."
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