Amad picks up monthly Championship award

The Manchester United loanee collected the trophy for December after helping push the Black Cats into the promotion shake-up with a string of outstanding displays.

He scored three times in last month's fixtures for Tony Mowbray's men, against Millwall, West Brom and Wigan Athletic.

Those strikes took the 20-year-old's tally to six for the campaign but his all-round approach play has also impressed and, more recently, he assisted the dramatic late winner for Luke O'Nien in the Emirates FA Cup third-round tie at Shrewsbury Town.

When asked for his highlight so far this campaign, he told the PFA: "I don't have a favourite moment, maybe I'll wait until the end of the season to give you that answer."

However, the youngster did forward the superb strike against Birmingham as his favourite goal and Marcus Rashford as the best player he's ever played with.

United boss Erik ten Hag recently commented on Amad: "He’s [making] really good progress there, so I’m happy with that." 

There were six nominees in total for the trophy with the Ivory Coast international beating Chupa Akpom (Middlesbrough), Sunderland team-mate Ross Stewart, Viktor Gyokeres (Coventry City), plus Iliman Ndiaye and James McAtee (both Sheffield United) in the voting.

Sunderland have a big north-east derby with Michael Carrick's in-form Middlesbrough at the Stadium of Light on Sunday.