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Sunderland Keeper Westwood Linked Again - Ipswich Town News

Town are being linked with out-of-favour Sunderland keeper Keiren Westwood. The Irish international was previously targeted by the Blues in the summer of 2011 before he joined the Black Cats and also earlier on his career prior to his move from Carlisle to Coventry.

Westwood has also been linked with Hull City recently but earlier this week Sunderland manager Martin O’Neill said he knew nothing of their interest and played down the chances of the 28-year-old leaving.

"I haven't heard of an interest from Hull," O'Neill said. "But Keiren clearly wants to play some games, of course he wants to play.

"My situation is that I have a very good goalkeeper in reserve, but it is hard to drop Simon Mignolet when he is playing so well.

"The fact is I'm very reluctant to let anyone go because we simply don't have the back-up. A manager did ask me about Keiren a few days ago - rang me manager-to-manager, which seems to be very rare these days - and I just had to tell him we couldn't do anything."

Town — who have also been linked with exiting Nottingham Forest keeper Lee Camp and Blackpool’s Matt Gilks in recent days — could be in the market for another keeper with loanee Stephen Henderson having returned to West Ham.

Henderson, who has an ankle injury which is likely to keep him out of action for two weeks, is keen to return to Portman Road and manager Mick McCarthy is also interested in bringing him back, although has concerns about the 24-hour recall clause the Hammers insist on including in any deal.

Westwood, who is 6ft 2in tall, started his career with hometown club Manchester City but failed to make a senior appearance there or during a 2003/04 loan spell at Oldham.

The following summer he joined Carlisle where he spent four seasons and made the League One PFA team in his final year before making a £750,000 switch to Coventry. He moved to Sunderland on a free transfer in June 2011, signing a contract until the summer of 2014.

Westwood, who has won 14 full caps with Ireland, for whom he qualifies via his grandmother, has made only eight Premier League starts and one sub appearance since joining the Black Cats, in addition to four appearances in the Capital One Cup.

Three of those games came this season and have been his only involvement at club level this season.

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