A YEAR ago, Dylan McGeouch was making his full Scotland debut in South America and had a host of clubs desperate to sign him after his best season of his flourishing career.

But fast forward 12 months and the former Hibs midfielder's decision to join Sunderland has made him the forgotten man of Scottish football. The 26-year-old could not even find a place in Jack Ross' squad for their Wembley League One play-off final loss to Charlton Athletic at the weekend.

And the former Celtic playmaker now admits he has a big decision to make this summer about whether he will tough it out with the Wearside club and try to make it in English football or return home.

McGeouch made 14 starts for Sunderland in League One, but drifted out of the team and by his own admission, didn't make anything like the impact he had at Easter Road which pushed him into Alex McLeish's Scotland plans against Peru and Mexico last summer.

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Now he will take his time to decide whether to remain with the Stadium of Light club for next season.

He said: "It has been stop-start campaign for me. I have been available for the majority of the games – mostly all of them – but I have only played a handful. I have had wee niggles, but I have just not had a lot of game time.

"It has been tough and frustrating and that's football. The manager can only pick 11 players and that is the way it goes.

"The season has been disappointing, but I still think it was the right move at the time. I came down and the manager gave me a game initially.

"It is disappointing that I have not played as much as I would have liked but it is something I will look at over the summer, see where my future is at and take it from there really. I am just going to go away over the summer and reassess things and see where we are.

"I have chapped the manager's door and asked why I am not playing. He understands my frustrations. I have spoken to him a few times and sometimes you are not going to be happy with what you hear, but you have to take it on the chin, keep your head up and keep training and playing and be available."

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And McGeouch believes Sunderland's style of play hasn't helped him either, which has hampered any hopes he had of what looked like a promising international career.

He admitted: "I look at that too and at this stage last season I was kicking on and I made the decision to come down to Sunderland.

"I did not get much game time and the way we played didn't help as it is a tough league and it was not going to be pretty football all the time and that comes into play as well.

"It is very disappointing but we go again and we move on.

"But if I could turn the clock back I would still have made the same move. This is a big club, a great club and a massive club and you see the fans who have been up and down the country all season and it has been fantastic.

"I have got to look at myself and my performances when I played. My biggest frustration is the lack of game time but I wouldn't change anything.

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"Now I have a big decision to make in the summer. I have not given up hope of making it here with Sunderland.

"I still believe that I can play a part in helping Sunderland be successful. I believed that all year and I feel that I can bring something to the team. I still strongly believe that.

"The club will reassess and everybody will reassess things and we will see what happens over the summer and in pre-season to see whether we can kick on.

"I am fit and I feel good and I feel that I can bring something to the table and the team and I expressed that to the manager, but he can only pick 18 players in his squad and unfortunately I was not one of them."