Sunderland v Tottenham: Son set for Premier League debut

Son Heung-min could make his Tottenham debut this weekend as Mauricio Pochettino’s men travel to face Sunderland in the Premier League.

The South Korea star, who scored a hat-trick for his country in an 8-0 thrashing of Laos during the international break, has been declared fit enough to make his first appearance since joining from Bayer Leverkusen for a reported £22million last month.

While Spurs boss Pochettino expects to be able to field the 23-year-old at the Stadium of Light on Sunday, he will not have the services of Christian Eriksen at his disposal, with the Dane still sidelined by a knee complaint.

Mousa Dembele is also a doubt after failing to recover from a knock sustained against Everton.

“Christian is close but not yet fit, Mousa is doubtful,” Pochettino said on Friday. “Clinton [N’Jie] is also close and Sonny is in better condition because he has played, scored three goals for South Korea and he has trained well this week.

Tottenham, who have lost one and drawn three of their Premier League games so far this season, will come face-to-face with some familiar figures at the Stadium of Light, as Jermain Defoe and Younes Kaboul prepare to take on their old club.

“Jermain is a natural finisher so of course we’re aware of his danger, you never lose those qualities,” midfielder Ryan Mason warned.

“But we’ll be concentrating on what we need to do on Sunday.”

Sunderland can call on the returning Fabio Borini for the first time since he returned to Wearside from Liverpool, while Yann M’Vila and Ola Toivonen could also feature, though they are short on match fitness.

Borini scored seven league goals in 32 appearances as he helped Sunderland to top-flight survival during a loan spell in 2013-14, but was unable to force his way into the first team upon his return to Anfield.

Advocaat hopes the transfer will see the Italian rediscover his best form and push his fellow strikers to produce improved performances.

“The most important thing is we now have a squad which can compete with each other,” manager Dick Advocaat told the club’s official website. 

Adam Johnson (shoulder), Steven Fletcher (knock) and Adam Matthews (ankle) are sidelined for the clash, while Jordi Gomez is unlikely to be fit despite returning to training this week following a knee problem.

DeAndre Yedlin, on loan from Spurs, is ineligible to feature against his parent club.

Sunderland have gone 10 games without a Premier League win over Tottenham.