Florent Ghisolfi, Sunderland’s director of football, has said there is “no issue” regarding the fitness of £30million ($41m) deadline-day signing Malick Fofana, despite the 21-year-old Belgian winger missing almost five months of last season at his previous club Lyon with an injury to his right ankle.The injury was raised again during a frantic final 24 hours of the transfer window when Crystal Palace emerged as rival suitors for Fofana. Palace’s new manager, Pierre Sage, worked with Fofana at Lyon, first in the youth system, then as head coach.With time running out both Sunderland and Palace agreed to a joint medical in France and both had private jets waiting to take the player to their respective clubs. Having agreed to join Sunderland, Fofana switched to Palace after speaking with Sage. Financial negotiations, as well as the medical, then rose in prominence and Fofana decided Wearside was his chosen destination.Fofana made his Sunderland debut as a second-half substitute at Brentford on Saturday and started Tuesday night’s Carabao Cup tie against Hull City, appearing for 79 minutes of the 1-0 home win.Sunderland’s sports director Florent Ghisolfi (Valery Hache/AFP via Getty Images)Speaking to reporters before kick-off, Ghisolfi said that physically — and mentally — Sunderland have no questions about Fofana, but Ghisolfi understands that Palace have their own perspective on the deal and “it’s fair to cover themselves”.“Me, I need to protect my player and I can say that he has zero issue (physically),” he said. “When we move forward on a player, even if it’s the last day, we know the mentality and we know the personality exactly. With every player on our shortlist, we know exactly the personality. And we knew that Malick is a top kid.”In transfer terms, Ghisolfi said Sunderland “won this this time, maybe we’ll lose another time” in that head-to-head with Palace. But he accepted deadline-day wrangling does not portray professional football in a good light.“Unfortunately, in football, this type of situation can happen now and I’m sorry for that,” he said. “It doesn’t give a good image of the football industry, for sure, but it can happen. You have to fight also in this type of situation as a club. It shows, as the manager (Regis Le Bris) said, the alignment and the commitment of everyone in the club. But the most important thing, we know that he is a top kid.“He has a top mentality, and he will fit with Sunderland 100 per cent.”Tuesday’s game was won with a clever goal from another Sunderland winger, Chemsdine Talbi — another who was the subject of transfer window speculation, having been omitted from the club’s Europa League squad. Ghisolfi called the omission “painful” but said “Chemsdine will stay with us 100 per cent”.Sunderland host champions Arsenal on Saturday night and begin their Europa League campaign, their first appearance in UEFA competition since 1973, next Wednesday at home to Dutch side AZ.