Sunderland stuck with loanee Ola Toivonen after French club rule out return

On-loan Toivonen has been limited to a bit-part role under Sam Allardyce’s tenure, with the Swedish international starting five of the Sunderland manager’s 13 games at the helm.

Sunderland are understood to have considered the possibility of Toivonen returning to parent club Rennes this month and bringing a premature end to his loan spell, as they have similarly done with Spurs full-back DeAndre Yedlin.

But that would have required the consent of Rennes, with Sunderland covering all of the 29-year-old’s wages during his season-long stint at the Stadium of Light.

The Ligue 1 outfit are not looking to take Toivonen back though after they had been keen to offload him last summer to remove his salary from the wage bill.

Rennes coach Philippe Montanier confirmed: “He will not return to Rennes.”

Sunderland do need to offload players if they are to add further fresh blood to the squad this month after bringing in Jan Kirchhoff and Dame N’Doye from Bayern Munich and Trabzonspor respectively.

The Black Cats are close to the limits of their wage bill, and are looking to move on the likes of Will Buckley, Valentin Roberge, Danny Graham and Jordi Gomez.

But Allardyce has been able to address the priority positions of centre-half and centre-forward before the halfway point of the window after N’Doye arrived on a four-month loan this week.