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Jack Ross has confirmed that no Sunderland players went AWOL when the squad reported back for pre-season training this week.

New owner Stewart Donald had said that agents for some of the club’s wantaway players had indicated to him that their clients would not return to Wearside under any circumstances.

But the warnings from those agents proved to be no more than empty threats, and no-one was absent without leave when the players assembled at the Academy of Light on Wednesday.

The only players who did not turn in were those involved in the World Cup in Russia - Wahbi Khazri and Bryan Oviedo - and those given permission by Ross to take a few extra days before reporting back for various reasons.

While there are undoubtedly several players who are determined leave, Ross is keen to stress that there are others whose situations are not so clear - and he will speak to them face-to-face rather than accept the word of their agents.

Asked whether anyone had failed to report back as instructed, he said: “No, apart from those ones who got a little bit of time off.”

Khazri and Oviedo are among those granted additional time off.

Both Khazri’s Tunisia and Oviedo’s Costa Rica have exited the tournament at the group stage but rather than expect them to return immediately, Ross has given them a two-and-a-half week break to rest after having played and trained all summer in Russia.

That means they will miss next week’s training camp in Portugal and the Black Cats’ first two friendlies against Darlington and Hartlepool, before they return in mid-July.

Ross said: “They’ll have a good bit of time off, probably two and a half weeks. They’ve been pretty much straight through, lots of games and travelling.”

On the discussions revealed by Donald with certain players’ agents, Ross added: “I understood what Stewart was saying. Speaking to players in here, I think there’s probably quite a few who it [their future] is not quite black and white.

“There are some who it is and that’s fine, but there’s others, conversations relayed through third parties, it’s not always as clear.

“Agents and representatives have their own job to do in terms of promoting players and where they might take them, but speaking to players face to face has been good.

“There’s quite a few who like it and enjoy it, and some who have said to me, they’ve been part of the demise in the last couple of years and so are eager to try and take it back up.

“So it’s important to stress that, and it’s up to me to try and foster that throughout the squad.”

Sunderland will need to offload some of their biggest earners to bring their wage bill down to a level that is affordable in League One.

But Ross believes that if he really wanted to keep some of those highly-paid players, he would be able to have that conversation with Donald.

He said: “If we’re in a position where we offload some who are desperate to go and have been on Premier League contracts, then it allows to be comfortable in the sense of carrying some who are really good players.

“That’s determined by their hunger to stay and the ones I’ve worked with so far, I’ve not seen any suggestion that they’re not keen.

“But it is very fluid at the moment and it is very difficult for me to predict what team I’ll have at the start of the season.”