Danny Rose has declared himself ready to face Newcastle on Sunday - despite the trauma of suffering hours of racist abuse against Serbia this week.
The left-back, on loan at Sunderland from Spurs, could even find himself getting a round of applause from an unlikely source before Sunday's match - Geordie fans are proposing to make a gesture of solidarity with the England Under-21 star before the North-East derby.
That would be a remarkable, and welcome, event ahead of a fixture more famous for division and rancour.
Sunderland boss Martin O'Neill suggested he will take a view of Rose's state of mind to see if he is ready to be picked, and not suffering after-effects following his sending-off amid stormy scenes on Tuesday.
Rose claimed he was hit twice by stones thrown by fans during the game and said he first noticed racial abuse being directed his way from the terraces during the warm-up.
But he said, "I can't wait for the Newcastle game to see what that's like."
Commenting on a suggesting from Tyneside fans that the away support could applaud Rose during the warm-up at the Stadium of Light, O'Neill said: "It would be exceptionally gracious, and I'm sure it would be appreciated."
He added: "Hopefully, he will take it in his stride. I am just getting to know Danny, so I will have a word with him in the next couple of days.
"He is rightly angry and disappointed. It has been a difficult situation for him. I have the utmost sympathy and empathy for him. Everyone here at the club is very much on his side."
Meanwhile, O'Neill has pledged there will be no repeat of the "unedifying" touchline clash with derby rival Alan Pardew.
The Sunderland boss has spoken to Newcastle counterpart Pardew "a couple of times" since they went face-to-face during a controversial 1-1 draw at St James' Park last March - but O'Neill admits that doesn't mean they are now best pals!
O'Neill offered praise to Pardew for winning the League Managers' Association boss of the year trophy in the summer - "I went over to congratulate him. He was a bit surprised. I think he was" - and the pair agreed that a "heat of the moment" bust-up was something to regret and put aside.
But O'Neill, who says he doesn't have a "coterie of friends in the game", has insisted that thawing of relations will do nothing to dampen the fervour at the Stadium of Light on Sunday.
In fact, O'Neill - a veteran of Glasgow's Old Firm derbies and Midlands football's local rivalries - reckons the Wear/Tyne battle is as "intense" and "passionate" as any in the game.
Sunderland are looking for a rare home victory over Newcastle after winning just one of the last 10 derbies held on Wearside.
Other than a triumph overseen by Roy Keane in 2008, you have to go back to April 1980 for a Sunderland home triumph.
That increases tensions and, speaking of his Pardew spat, O'Neill said: "Obviously, I hope there wouldn't be a repeat of that, if at all possible.
"In the heat of the moment, things can happen. Since then, I have spoken to Alan Pardew on a number of occasions, but particularly to say to him well done on being manager of the year.
"It was not particularly edifying. These things can happen on the spur of the moment, things that you can be very embarrassed with and annoyed with yourself afterwards. I hope maybe we have both learned a lesson from the previous encounter.
"Of course it will be the same old game... What's the point in me telling you something on a Thursday that I come to just totally obey on Sunday?! I'm hoping that part of it - the unedifying part of it - we will be able to cut that out. The rest of it? I'm fine with that."
Asked if he dwelled on the touchline clash, O'Neill joked: "I forgot about it within... four months! Don't worry, I got over it!"
Back in March, Lee Cattermole and Stephane Sessegnon were sent off for Sunderland and the bosses went to war over who employed physical tactics.
Asked if he was now a mate of Pardew's, or knew and understood him better, O'Neill said: "I can't say any of those things. I tend to just get on with my job and don't rely on a coterie of friends in the game. I never have."
While the respective managers are cooling it, there will still be a feisty atmosphere on and off the pitch.
O'Neill has one message: "Our first aim is to be, at the very least, the best team around here. No 1. The very least."
He added: "The supporters look forward to the game. I have heard other managers talk of derbies and say at the end of it all, the emotion is relief. I suppose I relate to that.
"I have been involved in a number of derbies, none bigger than Glasgow, but for intensity this is up there with the best of them. You just don't want to let people down.
"My assistant Steve Walford raised the intensity immediately after the game at St James' Park. He felt it was the same intensity as games we had with Rangers at Celtic Park."
Sunderland only have one fitness doubt - defender Titus Bramble has a sore hip. Phil Bardsley and James McClean are both available.
Sunderland's Spanish star Carlos Cuellar is hoping to harness some of his Old Firm experience on Sunday, describing football's big derby occasions as the best you can play in.
He and John O'Shea are likely to get the job of keeping Toon strikers Papiss Cisse and Demba Ba in check.
Cuellar said: "I was a Real Madrid fan as a kid. I never went to the game, El Clasico, but I watched it on TV. I was a big fan as a boy, but once you become a professional player, you mentally change. As a boy you get exciting coming into these games and hope your team wins.
"Then you play in them. The Old Firm games were amazing, some of the best game I ever played in my life, so frantic. You come from abroad and everyone says it's a big game, and you say, 'Okay, it's a big game' but it's more than that. You live the atmosphere and you feel how the people feel, how important it is for all of them.
"I was sent off in one of them. I hope to stay on this time. It was a good save! (he stopped a Shunsuke Nakamura free-kick on the Rangers line) I like the feeling and the intensity. I love the sensation.
"Friends and fans have been sending me messages this week, the fans are telling me, 'We don't care about the other games this season, as long as we win these two, nothing else matters.' The players are very aware of our responsibilities in this game.
"You're representing a mass of people. That responsibility makes it even more important.
"Plus, a win like this can do so much for your confidence because if we beat them we'll feel so happy after the game and for weeks after.
"If you lose, you feel the pressure straight away. Some players can and some players can't play with that kind of pressure.
"Some people think if you lose this game it's the end of the world. It's not, it just feels like it."
Shola Ameobi has been tipped to cause Sunderland more misery by team-mate Davide Santon, writes Simon Bird.
The striker has notched seven goals in his career against the Wearsiders earning himself the nickname Mackem Slayer.
Boss Alan Pardew is considering starting with Ameobi, 31, up front, although Papiss Cisse or Demba Ba would have to give way.
Former Inter defender Santon said: "Sunday we have to win 100 per cent, but it's OK because if we put Shola on the pitch and he scores.
"I played the second game last season, it was fantastic. When Shola scored the late equaliser I was so happy because I know how important it is for the fans."
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