Gordon is generally considered to be the No.1 goalkeeper at the Stadium of Light but he has not played in the current campaign after sustaining a broken arm in pre-season.
Britain's most expensive shot-stopper, who was signed from Hearts for £9million in 2007, has now regained fitness, but Bruce is prepared to keep faith in Mignolet.
The Belgium Under 21 international will keep his place in the first XI against 2009/10 Premier League runners-up Manchester United on Saturday on the basis of his displays.
Bruce told the Sunderland Echo: "Simon's performances over the course of the season so far have been nothing short of fantastic.
"It would be harsh on him to miss out this weekend simply because Craig is back.
"But, to be fair to Simon, he fully deserves to keep his place anyway on the back of his last few displays for us.
"He has been absolutely terrific and what that has enabled us to do is give Craig Gordon every chance to get back to full fitness in his own time and make sure he's confident that his arm is OK.
"Maybe in the past we might have played him in the reserves on Monday, and then shoved him straight back in the first team. But there's no need to do that now.
"We've got the international break coming up, which will give him even more time to get himself right and then I'll have a decision to make in two or three weeks' time."
Meanwhile, Bruce hopes Scotland will not call on Gordon for October's Euro 2012 qualifiers against Czech Republic and Spain.
"I hope Scotland don't use him, because I think he just needs another two or three weeks of continuous training and hard work," said Bruce. "That's not in my hands though, we'll just have to wait and see about that."
Sunderland v Man. Utd. Click here to bet.
View the original article here
No comments:
Post a Comment