The China international was dismissed 19 minutes into his debut for Kevin Blackwell's side after receiving two cautions from referee Joeri Van De Velde.

United, who could shortly receive an offer for Luton Shelton from Vålerenga, have yet to receive official confirmation from football's ruling bodies that Sun, a free signing from Manchester City, will not be suspended for next month's Championship curtain-raiser at Birmingham City.

But their manager Kevin Blackwell told The Star: "I don't think it will affect his availability for us.

"It's my understanding that a straight red card could possibly have done but he got two yellows and so I don't think that will count. The lad was a little bit unfortunate because there was nothing malicious in what he did.

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"He missed the start of our training and we've been doing a quite a bit of work with him on the physical side of things.

"The problem was that, because of that, he was just a little bit behind the play at times because he's still catching-up."

Blackwell added: "I actually thought the referee had a good game overall.

"In my opinion he only got one thing wrong and that was telling Sun Jihai to go and not asking me to take him off.

"That's usually what happens in England where we tend to take a more common sense approach.

"Like I say, the ref had a good game but he should have put things into context."

United continue their preparations for the August 9 trip to St Andrews when they travel to Dutch second division side Helmond Sport this evening before returning to England tomorrow.

Blackwell said: "I want to give everybody who has travelled a run out so I can take a good look at them.

"We're on course to do that and the games (against Ferencvaros and Tienen) have been good tests.

"Exactly what I wanted."

Blackwell's first task following the Helmond fixture could be to decide upon Shelton's future should the Norwegians pursue their interest.

The Jamaica striker joined United from Helsingborgs in January 2007.

Jan-Michael Williams, the Trinidad and Tobago goalkeeper who was previously on trial at Bramall Lane, has joined sister-club Ferencvaros on a one-year deal after failing to gain a work permit in England.

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