Cristophe Berra

By The Black Cats
January 22 2009

The Black Cats are chasing five potential new signings and boss Ricky Sbragia is hoping that the first could arrive this weekend in time for the Fulham game on Tuesday night. Sbragia revealed the club is following up leads on a number of possible signings, with a defender his top priority and a midfielder also on his wanted list. Sbragia: "We have made enquiries about five and we're waiting to see where we stand. There's one we've got our eye on and if we bring him in, then he should be starting on Tuesday's game against Fulham."We might have one in by Tuesday, we might have two. We really just have to see how the weekend goes.

"Of the five players we've got under consideration, four are defenders and one is a midfielder.

"But we're not expecting to get all five in.

"We've just looked at players who we think would suit us. We'll see if we can make something happen."

Sbragia is keen to strengthen his defence, even more so after injuries to Nyron Nosworthy and Danny Collins in the 2-1 home defeat at the hands of Martin O'Neill's Aston Villa showed the lack of strength in depth in the defensive position.

Sbragia added: "When those two went off, we only had four fit defenders to call on in total and clearly that's not a good situation.

"Thankfully, Danny looks as though he will be available for the weekend but we're still down to the bare bones."

The latest player to be linked with Sunderland is Scottish international centre-half and captain of Hearts Christophe Berra.