Sunderland boss Martin O'Neill has branded Steven Fletcher "absolutely essential" to their side this season.

Fletcher, 25, has scored three goals in his first two league games for the Black Cats, and O'Neill has insisted that the Scot will score goals at the Stadium of Light.

"I think he will score goals for us. I think he will be able to hold up play for us. I think that's really, really important for us, it's absolutely essential," he told talkSPORT.

"He'll bring people into the game and I think during the next couple of months, when he does get properly fit - he's still struggling with that at the minute because of having no pre-season - he'll do really well.

"I mentioned people seem to have underrated him but not me. I watched Wolves play a lot last season and each time they played their games, despite the fact they might have lost some of those particular matches, I thought he was still excellent."

Fletcher joined Sunderland from Wolves in August.