Bruce - Bent's time will come

// A bit of a hack but it works// The article snippet is wrapped onto a second line, even when #article-sub is emptyif( $("div#article-sub").children().length == 0 ) {$("div#article-sub").remove();} Sunderland boss Steve Bruce has backed Darren Bent to force his way back into the England fold. The in-form striker does have four international caps to his name, but has not featured for his country in almost two years.A switch to the Stadium of Light from Tottenham this summer was intended to provide him with an opportunity to change that, with regular first-team football on offer in the North East.Bent has revelled in his new surroundings and has made a blistering start to his Black Cats career.That has seen him mentioned once again as a possible candidate for a striking role with the Three Lions.He was overlooked by Fabio Capello in the Italian's most recent selection, despite Jermain Defoe being absent through injury, but Bruce is confident the 25-year-old will get his opportunity to shine in the near future.He said: "No disrespect to Darren, but I wasn't that surprised because if you analyse Fabio Capello, he hasn't made many changes from the day he took over."He's an experienced manager - he's been there and worn the t-shirt - and thinks, why should he change anything when people have done well for him, as the England team have over the last 18 months?"The clamour is for Darren. All he can do is keep playing well and I'm sure his chance will come, it's as simple as that."Whether he can break in now to a World Cup squad, who knows? There's still six months to go."Work-rateBruce had to part with £10million in order to lure Bent away from Spurs and admits he is delighted to see the former Ipswich and Charlton ace providing an immediate return on that investment.He told the Journal: "That's obviously what we have brought him here for, but when you do spend a lot of money like we have done, of course you want him to hit the ground running."It's not just his goalscoring, but his appetite to work. He's run over 12.5km during a game, which is a staggering achievement."He's also a goalscorer and brings a work ethic from the front two, which is important."When you start comparing him in the same breath as [Fernando] Torres and [Emmanuel] Adebayor and all these top strikers, he's up there with them."For a Sunderland centre-forward to be up there with them and to have Kenwyne [Jones] coming up behind like a steam train, it bodes well."But we can't get carried away. We are doing OK and Darren's doing OK. I hope that continues."

Source: SKY_Sports