Thursday 7 July 2011

Manchester United defender John O'Shea undergoing Sunderland medical

John O'Shea (right) 
John O'Shea
 
Manchester United defender John O'Shea is due to have a medical at Sunderland.

It is understood the 30-year-old Republic of Ireland international was on his way to Wearside hot on the heels of team-mate Wes Brown, who was in the north east for his medical on Wednesday night.

A successful completion of both deals would take manager Steve Bruce's summer signings to date to eight.

The package for Brown and O'Shea is set to net United around £8m. And that figure could rise in excess of double figures because Bruce is still keen to lure Reds midfielder Darron Gibson to the Black Cats to complete a treble capture of Old Trafford players.

Sunderland's chief executive, former Manchester City striker Niall Quinn, is still working on the deal to take Gibson north.

The Wearsiders will be getting over 750 games worth of United experience in Brown and O'Shea.

Brown was promoted to Fergie's senior squad as an 18-year-old in 1998, making his debut as a sub at Old Trafford against Leeds United on the day Jaap Stam signed for the Reds.

He was given his European debut away to Brondby in Denmark in the Champions League in October '98 and ended his debut campaign as a Treble winner, gaining enough Premier League matches to win a title medal and he was in the Reds Euro squad for the final against Bayern Munich in Barcelona.

However, his promising first season was followed by the first injury disaster for the defender when he damaged knee ligaments in the 1999 pre-season and he missed the whole campaign.

Brown’s United career was dogged by injury problems but he always stormed back after the knockdowns.

His best ever consistent and injury-free season came in 2007-08. He missed just four matches and became United's established right-back, replacing the injured Gary Neville.

The highlight of his season was a star performance against Chelsea in the 2008 Champions League final in Moscow.

Sadly, once again misfortune was around the corner and the following term he suffered an ankle injury in October that completely wrecked his season and with the emergence of Brazilian twins Rafael and Fabio da Silva, Brown slipped down the pecking order before a bust-up on last summer’s pre-season tour of America with Fergie saw him slide out of favour last season and he ended his United career on 362 appearances.

Brown’s ill luck in 2008 was seized upon, ironically, by O’Shea, who had his best season for United at right- back and was a solid member of the 2009 title winners and appeared in the Champions League final in Rome against Barcelona.

O'Shea notched up 393 appearances for the Reds in a senior career that began in 2000.

But, while both had featured in recent European Cup finals in Moscow and Rome, neither were in Fergie’s 18-man squad on duty at Wembley in May against Barca.

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