Sunderland admit interest in Cabanas

Sunderland boss Steve Bruce has admitted an interest in signing South American hot-shot Salvador Cabanas with number one target Kevin Kuranyi now expected to stay at Schalke.

Kuranyi, who is out of contract in the summer, is understood to be wanted by a number of clubs, including the Black Cats, Chelsea and Birmingham.

But the 27-year-old has pledged his short-term future at least to the Bundesliga side who are pushing for the title and a place in next season's Champions League.

"Now I have the chance to make something big happen at this club," Kuranyi told German newspaper Bild.

"Even though I still feel tired due to the intensity of our most recent training camp, (coach) Felix (Magath) has forced me to be on top of my fitness.

"Under his belt I have again found the keys to enjoy the game."

With Kuranyi out of the running, Bruce may now train his sights on Paraguay international Cabanas, who is currently top scorer in the Mexican league with Club America.

"I've monitored Cabanas. He's a fantastic player and whether a deal is possible for him, I don't know," said Bruce in the Sunderland Echo.

"He's somebody who would be of interest to us, but I'm sure if he became available, there would be a lot more clubs interested too."

The one plus point for Bruce is Cabanas' international team-mate, defender Paulo Da Silva, is currently a regular in the Sunderland side.

If Bruce is to conduct any transfer business over the next few days it will be from the club's warm-weather training camp in Portugal.

Bruce and his players today flew out of freezing Britain in a bid to aid their preparations for this weekend's Barclays Premier League clash with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

"It means we can go and do five or six sessions before we take on Chelsea," said Bruce, whose side have managed just two proper training sessions in the last three weeks.

"I wouldn't want to go to Chelsea with the preparation we had last week. Some of the players are Olympic swimmers, the amount of work they've done in the pool!

"But you can only do that for so long. Eventually the players need to go out and play and replicate what we do on a Saturday."

Adamant the trip is far from a holiday, he added: "There will be no suntans. It'll only be 16 or 17 degrees, but that's warm enough."