Kieran fit for Fratton trip

The midfield-star has been plagued with injuries during his first season on Wearside but has still managed to win over the fans with a series of breath-taking performances. He netted a brace when Sunderland beat Pompey a few weeks ago - shortly after returning from an injury which kept him on the sidelines for 4 months.

His last outing was against Liverpool at Anfield when he was returning from a hamstring injury. He lasted all of 6 minutes before being substituted with a re-occurence of that same injury.

Sunderland will, for once, be blessed with midfielders as Dickson Etuhu recently returned from African Cup of Nations duty to score his first goal for the club. New signing Andy Reid returned from injury at the weekend to set-up fellow midfielder Daryl Murphy's spectacular goal.