Former West Ham man suffers fresh Sunderland blow after disastrous Portsmouth stay

Former Pompey loanee Aji Alese’s Sunderland future has been dealt a further blow.

The centre-back, of course, spent the second half of last season on loan at Fratton Park, registering just four minutes of Championship action.

After tearing his quad during a brief cameo off the bench against Preston North End soon after his January arrival, he remained sidelined for the remainder of the campaign.

The serious setback curtailed his short south coast stay and promptly returned to the Stadium of Light to undergo treatment.

The Black Cats were looking to offload Alese, whose last Sunderland outing came in January 2025, in the summer transfer window, with just a year remaining on his deal.

Former Pompey loanee forced to train with academy

He was subsequently left out of Regis Le Bris’ 26-man travelling party for their tour of the United States in pre-season and has since been forced to train with the academy.

After missing Sunderland’s U21s Premier League 2 fixtures against Brentford and Nottingham Forest last month, the defender returned to the fold against Ipswich Town on Saturday.

But it now looks increasingly Alese’s future lies away from Sunderland, having fallen further down Le Bris’ pecking order following the arrival of Spurs centre-back Kevin Danso in the summer.

Speaking in late August after a friendly against PSV, Black Cats U21’s head coach Matt Craddock explained why the former Pompey loanee was now with the academy.

He told our sister paper, The Sunderland Echo: ‘Aji is a top professional. He has been superb with us, and he’s been brilliant for the lads, but also brilliant for the staff. Really, we’re just there to support Aji on his return.’

‘Like you said, we’ve connected with him really closely, and we’re letting him almost drive his progression.

‘Today, he wanted to try and get as close to 90 as possible, so the fact that we got past 90 - it was actually 100 in the end - I’m really buzzing for him, because that’s just another thing ticked off for him, mentally and physically, on his return.’

Aji Alese’s forgotten Pompey loan

Having failed to feature for Sunderland during the first half of the campaign, the switch to Fratton represented a fresh start for Alese, who was hoping to put his injury woes to bed.

The West Ham youth product added much-needed reinforcements to Mousinho’s backline at a time when several key figures - including Conor Shaughnessy, Josh Knight and Hayden Matthews - were sidelined.

Despite being an unused substitute in a 3-0 win over West Brom in January, the Sunderland loanee came off the bench in the closing stages of February’s 1-1 draw with Preston.

However, during his four-minute cameo at Deepdale, Alese tore his quad, which brought an abrupt end to his Fratton Park stay.

That would prove to be the defender’s only involvement on the south coast and subsequently returned to the north east to receive treatment.

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