Sunderland will not be taking up an option to sign former Schalke striker Chinedu Obasi.
The 29-year-old forward has been on trial with Sam Allardyce’s squad but has been struggling to prove his fitness after breaking a leg earlier in the year.
The free agent, who is a Nigeria international but has a German passport, is now exploring other options.
Despite the weekend’s 3-0 derby victory over Newcastle, Sunderland have been short of goals and new manager Allardyce had hoped Obasi can help could he prove his fitness over the next two weeks.
Speaking previously, Allardyce said: ‘He [Obasi] is a Nigerian international and we are just seeing because he’s got a reasonably good CV, in terms of where he’s played before.
He has been fraught with a bad injury, which is why he’s not been fixed up with a club yet, but we’d like to see him for this week and perhaps next week.
‘But I need someone who has an impact now, not in three weeks time, so it will be a difficult task I think. But he’s here and if he can show us anything we haven’t got then there maybe something we can do.’
