The Black Cats ace has endured several tough years at the Stadium of Light due to injury issues.
Sunderland manager Phil Parkinson has praised Black Cats ace Duncan Watmore, admitting the 25-year-old winger caught the Stadium of Light newcomer’s eye “in the first training session”.
Watmore has endured three years of injury hell, coming back from one ACL injury, then another, only to then be ruled out again with ligament damage following a bad tackle by Wycombe Wanderers midfielder Marcus Bean in March.
Things are looking up again for Watmore as he was handed starts by new manager Parkinson in Sunderland’s last three games – including the EFL Trophy – and scored his first goal since March in the Black Cats’ 5-0 victory over Tranmere.
The Black Cats boss suggested that it is too early to judge whether Watmore will be able to start again when Sunderland travel to Shrewsbury on Saturday, given the delicate situation around his fitness, but praised his talents and looked ahead to the prospect of him putting in plenty of great performances for the Wearside team.
“We will have a look at Duncan. He has done very well but we have to be careful with him,” Parkinson told the Sunderland media team. “He caught my eye in the first training session. He is rebuilding his career; he is in a good place and we want to keep him right and get as many great performances out of him.”
As of March 2017, Watmore was believed to be on a £20,000-per-week contract (Daily Star) following his last contract extension in November 2015 which takes him until the end of this season (Transfermarkt).
According to Chronicle Live, he was one of the players who took a 40 percent pay cut in the summer of 2017 after dropping from the Premier League due to a clause in his contract, which would therefore currently put him on a reported £12,000-per-week, though it’s not believed he took another pay cut after the drop to League One.
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