Aiden McGeady: 'I would still be at Sunderland if not for injury'

After a largely excellent five-year spell at the club, Aiden McGeady left Sunderland last summer. However, he feels he could, and maybe should, still be there.

Aiden McGeady believes he would still be part of the Sunderland squad today if injury hadn’t prevented him from playing.

McGeady was a rare shining light for Sunderland since their relegation from the Premier League. He joined ahead of the ill-fated Championship 2017-18 season and was unable to stop them falling into League One. After that, though, he always said that since he was part of the team that got relegated he felt a sense of responsibility to put it right and get the club out of League One.

That finally happened last season, although ironically McGeady was injured for almost all of the campaign.

"If I'd played all last season at Sunderland, chances are I would still be there, but I didn’t, and that's just the way things have panned out,” McGeady said.

“I know I've got another couple of years left in me if I look after myself so it's more about me, I still enjoy playing and I feel I've still got a lot to give. I've done a couple of badges and I'm about a year through the UCFB course in Sports Directorship in Manchester.

“It's quite heavy-going because I left school at 16 and haven't done any essays since then, but I have to do 3,000-word reports with Harvard-style referencing and stuff.

"I don't want to sound disrespectful but I could retire today if I wanted to, and be fine financially, but I still have that hunger to play football and know I can still perform at this level. I'm just doing things while still playing; I did quite a lot last season when I was injured to see what I fancied doing once I've finished.

“I probably would like to stay in football but I want to put it to the back of my mind because as soon as you start talking about coaching and things like that then it's like you're phasing yourself out, and I don't want to think of it that way. "There's the media as well...”

McGeady suffered a frustrating end to a very good time at Sunderland, with injury preventing him from impressing the then-manager Alex Neil.

He was immediately snapped up by predecessor Lee Johnson at Hibernian, but he says the shifting sands in policy at Sunderland hastened his ultimate departure from the club.

"There were no discussions about staying [a contract extension] and I couldn't really see myself staying with the way Sunderland is being run at the minute anyway. They are very much focused on bringing in young players and developing them with high-asset value and I don't really tick that box.

“Alex Neil never got a chance to play me. Or rather, he did, but his team was settled and doing well. He was quite structured in the way he wanted to play, and his starting XI, and the team that had been successful for him before I was fit.

“I didn't really get the chance to play so it was a bit frustrating the way it finished, but I was part of the play-off final and we got promoted and it was always the aim to get back up."