Aiden McGeady: 'Rushing back for Sunderland nearly cost me my career'

Former Sunderland winger says his dedication to the Sunderland cause came at a cost.

Aiden McGeady has admitted he contemplated retirement after ‘rushing’ himself back from injury to try to help Sunderland.

McGeady made his first start for Hibernian in their 3-2 win over Motherwell last week and made an instant impact by creating the first goal for Kevin Nisbet.

It was a satisfying return for McGeady, who signed for Hibs in the summer but immediately faced another spell on the sidelines.

Before the recent revolution at the club, Sunderland came to rely upon McGeady to provide the individual moments of magic to haul them out of League One.

However, injury restricted him to just 12 starts last season. He made a big attempt to get back towards the end of the season and, although he was on the bench for the final league game of the season and two of the three play-offs games, his final start for Sunderland came at Rotherham in October 2021 – a match in which he was sent off.

“At Sunderland, I rushed back and had two or three setbacks so I was more cautious this time,” he said. “There must have been people thinking, ‘He’s up here for a jolly, or to top up his pension’, whatever they want to say. I absolutely wasn’t. I still love playing football and I want to do well for this club.

“It was just about getting over the pain in my knee. We took it really cautiously this time.

“I’ve not played for so long that I feel I owe the club and the fans something. The injury really set me back a lot, because it was a recurrence of the same one from last season.

“There’s nothing worse than being injured. The last four or five months have been some of the worst of my career.

“I actually contemplated just packing it in completely. I thought, ‘I’m never going to get over this’. But it’s all worth it when you have days like Sunday, when you are out there enjoying playing football again and showing you can make a difference.”

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