Source: FOOTYMAD
Sunderland loanee set to start for Doncaster
New loan signing David Healy is set to make his Doncaster Rovers debut in tomorrow's home game against Millwall. The 31-year-old Northern Ireland striker trained with the Rovers squad yesterday, but manager Sean O'Driscoll will wait until after today's' training session before deciding what role he will play against the Lions.Said O'Driscoll, who drew a blank in his efforts to draft someone in as a replacement for the injured Billy Sharp ahead of last Saturday's Reading game: "He was one who was available but he was carrying an ankle injury so we couldn't really bring him in for the Reading game because he hadn't really trained with Sunderland that week."He was due to be back in full-time training on Monday and play in a reserve game on Tuesday. "He came through the game okay and we took it from there. We'd already approached him and said that if everything went okay would he be interested in coming here on loan. He knew quite a few players here so that helped so he was quite keen to come."I was at the game on Tuesday night - it wasn't ideal conditions with all the rain - but he looked okay, though I don't think he touched the ball too many times."Healy has struggled to establish himself at the Stadium of Light since his arrival in a £1.2m deal from Fulham in 2008, and has not appeared for the first team since January.Comfortably his country's leading international goal scorer with 35, he made 12 appearances on loan at Ipswich last season, but has been pushed further down the pecking order on Wearside by the summer arrivals of £13m plus Ghana star Asamoah Gyan and loan signing Danny Welbeck."It's difficult at a Premier Division club when they bring in lots of new players and people can get lost with the size of some of the squads," said O'Driscoll. "Sometimes that suits players, but David was keen to play and keen to come out somewhere - so that was a positive."Healy said "I'm thrilled to bits to be here. I met the manager last night in a hotel and he was very helpful and told me what he wanted from me."Healy admitted that life at Sunderland had become frustrating of late due to the lack of first-team opportunities.He said: "I want to play and I want to be part of a football club that's going somewhere."Asked about his future hopes, Healy, who is out of contract next summer said: "The only thing on my mind at this moment in time is doing as well as I can for this football club and proving to the manager that he was right to bring me here."
