The 23-year-old defender, who completed an £8million switch to the Stadium of Light last week, arrived with a hamstring injury, and has missed the games against Nottingham Forest and Sunday's 3-0 defeat to Manchester City.

However, he trained with his new team-mates at the end of last week and is now likely to play in an in-house game on Thursday or Friday.

Manager Roy Keane said: "We will possibly have a practice game at the end of the week for the likes of Anton and one or two other lads who are catching up on their fitness, so we will have enough to have some decent training sessions.

"We have two weeks to play with now. We will have a practice game one Thursday or Friday and give Anton a good run-out in that. The way we defended on Sunday, I am sure he will think he has got a chance."

Keane will hope to have a series of fresh options for the league clash with Wigan a week on Saturday with Ferdinand's former West Ham colleague George McCartney having completed a return to the Stadium of Light last night.