Sessegnon focused on Sunderland

After two-and-a-half years with the Premier League side, the French attacker has been linked with a move away from the Stadium of Light but admits that he is happy with life under new manager Paolo Di Canio.

"The speculation is okay, I have no problem with that. But I'm happy at Sunderland," he told the Sunderland Echo.

"We have worked well in pre-season and hopefully we can continue like this. I'm enjoying it at Sunderland and my mind is for Sunderland now."

"It's a very important time, you need to have a pre-season. You need to do the hard work to start the season well," he added.

"I think that affected me during the first few months of last season, but this year is different because we have had a good pre-season with a lot of good players coming.

"That's made everyone work hard in training and we have got a strong mentality too among the players. It looks good already for the start of the season."