Sunderland Sign Wolfsburg's Sotirios Kyrgiakos On Loan

Following Martin O'Neill's loan capture of Wayne Bridge from Manchester City earlier in the day, the Sunderland manager has moved to sign former Liverpool centre-half and Greek international Sotirios Kyrgiakos from Wolfsburg on loan until the end of the season. The 32-year-old of course formerly played 49 times for the Merseyside outfit before leaving for Germany, and has joined the North East side as cover for O'Neill's raft of injured centre-halves, including Wes Brown, Titus Bramble and Matt Kilgallon, who will all miss tomorrow's game with Norwich City. O'Neill obviously sees Kyrgiakos' experience as an invaluable influence on his team, having lost Brown to a knee injury in the weekend FA Cup game against Middlesbrough, and has brought him in until the summer from a club where he had been overlooked for the majority of the season. Sunderland have looked frail in defence all season, despite the signings of Wes Brown and John O'Shea from Manchester United, and a lot of the good work their forwards have consistently provided has been let down at times by silly defensive errors. The signatures of Wayne Bridge and now Kyrgiakos will now increase those defensive options. Rumours of Emile Heskey once more linking up with Martin O'Neill are yet to be confirmed...