Sherwood suffered a fractured leg while playing for Portsmouth last Boxing Day and expects it to take a while before he reaches full match fitness.
He said: "It's been a long time since I played so it's still a relatively quick come-back for me but I'm going to have to manage it. "The fracture side feels fine at the moment and I'm not going to get any fitter without playing games.
"I've only played half a game at Notts County and 70 minutes against Norwich so I need games, It doesn't matter how many games you play pre-season you need three or four games to get into the season anyway before you get fit and that goes for every team.
" I think all of Mick McCarthy's sides are up and at you and raring to go and I'm sure it'll be a tough game for us. They're one of the contenders to get automatic promotion I feel because of the strength of their squad.
"We'll be up for it and I'm Sunderland will be. I think everyone is at the start of the season. it's important we start because if you have a poor start then your season could be over very quickly. If you have a good start you can have a lull in the season and you're still there or thereabouts, maybe not through automatic but through the play-offs.
"We've got some good talent here, there's a good appetite among the lads in the squad - they want to play, they want to do well and it's encouraging to see. We'll need luck there's no doubt about that, but we can't wait to get underway."