Cunningham ready for one more test

IT WAS the obvious question to put to a player with 17 years and 604 league appearances under his belt: why do it?

Why join a club that dropped out of the Premiership with faces redder than their shirts? Why put those 35-year-old bones through the rigours of the Championship, a division with less talent than the Rose of Tralee? Hang up the boots Kenny, relax on that Premiership pension, take Niall’s seat in the commentary box.

“There wasn’t a huge amount of options on my table. I had to be realistic,” was the honest answer from Sunderland new boy Kenny Cunningham.