Manager Sam Allardyce has refused to reveal whether or not Jermain Defoe will still be a Sunderland player beyond January.
The Black Cats boss denied speculation linking the 33-year-old with a winter exit earlier this week amid suggestions that the striker has grown frustrated in the North-East.
"At the end of the day, whatever happens, if I get a phone call saying this or that, then that determines what happens with one of your players," Allardyce is quoted as saying by the Daily Mail.
"If I ring an opposition manager or football club and I want one of their players, what determines if that player is available or isn't available changes day by day.
"There's no definite players that we know of [here] going out and, at this moment in time, we don't know a definite player who is coming in, because we're just starting to pull up who we think might be available."
Defoe has netted four times in 11 Premier League appearances.
Shane Callaghan
