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.
