OFFICIAL: Sunderland snap up Bridge

Sunderland have captured Manchester City left-back Wayne Bridge on-loan for the rest of the campaign.

The 31 year-old defender has been out of favour at City under Roberto Mancini and rejected a loan move to Celtic over the summer.

Sunderland do not have a recognized left-back with Phil Bardsley and Kieran Richardson filling in for the past couple of seasons.

Bridge started his career at Southampton before earning a move to Chelsea. The England international was quickly super-seeded by the arrival of Ashley Cole and spent a brief loan spell with Fulham before moving to Eastlands.

Under Mark Hughes, Bridge was a regular, but the arrival of Mancini saw him fall out of favour and he spent a disasterous second-half of last season on-loan with West Ham.

Speaking to safc.com, Martin O'Neill said:

'I'm hoping that with Wayne's undoubted experience and ability he can be a big help to the team until the end of the season.

'I'm very pleased to have him here and with the number of injuries we've sustained recently I'm sure he'll be a great help to us.'

Bridge is eligible for tomorrow's clash with Norwich City at the Stadium of Light.

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