The 26-year-old Scotland international, the club's record signing when he clinched a £9million switch from Hearts in August 2007, is already back at the club's Academy of Light training headquarters as he recovers from knee surgery.

Gordon underwent an operation in May after a frustrating season had been brought to a premature end by the problem after already missing much of the campaign with an ankle injury.

Hungarian Fulop was the main beneficiary of the Scot's misfortune with the Edinburgh-born player managing only 14 appearances.

He has been linked with a move away from Wearside this summer, but all he is currently concentrating on is regaining full fitness and restoring himself as first-choice keeper at the Stadium of Light.

Gordon said: "After starting last season fairly well, it just fell away after that and it was just one thing after another for me.

"I have not experienced that before in my career, but hopefully I have got all that out of the way at the same time and I can concentrate on getting fit and healthy and have a good run at it this season.

"It was a new experience for me and it was difficult to handle, but these things happen over the course of a player's career and it's about bouncing back and handling it, coming back fitter and stronger and ready to go again."

Gordon's team-mates are not due back until next Thursday, when new manager Steve Bruce will start the process of assessing his squad in earnest.

But his rehabilitation work is already well under way.

He told the club's official website, www.safc.com: "It's not going too badly. I'm slowly but surely getting back into the swing of things.

"I'm at the rehab phase now, just getting the knee used to the rigours of the training that we can expect over the next few weeks.

"The operation was to clean the knee of debris, smooth the surfaces, making sure that everything was working properly again.

"Now it's a case of building up the muscles around it and getting back into training as soon as possible.

"You don't really want to be doing that when it's meant to be your holidays and it's next week when the rest of the guys are back.

"While they have been still enjoying their time off, I have been back here working hard and making sure I will be ready for the new season.

"But that's what you have to do. Nobody wants to be injured at any time, but you have to put the effort in and get yourself back as quickly as possible.

"Hopefully I will be ready for the start of the season."