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 career.

Fast forward 12 months and

the former Hibernian midfielder’s decision to sign for 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 loss to Charlton Athletic at the weekend.

McGeouch now admits he has a big decision to make this summer about whether he will tough it out where he is or return home. He 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.

Now he will take his time to decide whether to remain at the Stadium of Light 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. 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 and see where my future is at and take it from there. I am

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 and 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 and keep your head up and keep training and playing and be available.” McGeouch believes Sunderland’s style of play hasn’t helped him either hampering hopes of furthering his international career.

He admitted: “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.

“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.”