Sunderland earned promotion to the Championship last season and O’Nien played his part with 29 League One appearances for the Black Cats over the course of the campaign.

 

Thoughts are now turning towards a season back in the second tier and Sunderland will begin their campaign by hosting Coventry City at the end of July.

 

 

O’Nien insisted that the players are fully aware of the obstacles that lie ahead as they look to fight for promotion back into the Premier League and they are expecting the intensity in pre-season to continue to ramp up.

 

“We have things we need to go out and achieve – everyone came in early [on Wednesday] to catch up and we had a few tests”, O’Nien was quoted as saying by Chronicle Live.

 

 

“I think the volume will get cranked up day by day now – it’s nice to see the boys again, and we all know what’s in front of us.”

 

The 27-year-old admitted that he feels pre-season has come around quickly as he has continued to bask in the success of last term.

 

 

“Pre-season has come around very quickly – it only feels like yesterday that we were lifting that trophy [at Wembley]”, he said.

 

“I’ve probably watched the goals at least 100 times, and have been lying in bed looking through the photos.”

 

Next week the Black Cats will fly out to Portugal for a training camp, where they will face Scottish giants Rangers in a pre-season friendly match on 9th July.