Aidan McGeady

Aidan McGeady needs to prove his fitness before Phil Parkinson can decide whether to give Sunderland a second chance.

The former Republic of Ireland international is recovering from a knee injury but on Monday Sunderland played an hour of their 4-3 home defeat to Crystal Palace in the Under-23s.

This led to fresh calls from some fans to bring McGeady back after nearly 12 months of effective freezing, with Charlton spending the second half of last season on loan at Atletico.

But Parkinson is indifferent to McGeady’s future, only to discuss the situation when the 34-year-old is fully healthy.

While this seems to open the door to McGeady’s return, he does not appear to be involved in Parkinson’s plans – the fact that he was not given a squad number over the summer reinforces a notion.

“The key to Aidan is to keep himself healthy because he has not played since July,” Parkinson said when asked about the winger.

“He came back [this season] With two problems, he had an injection in the knee that needed rest, and then we prepared a program for him, similar to what the pre-season boys helped him speed up.

“I told you Aidan, we’ll make you healthy, and then we’ll sit down and evaluate everything”, because until he’s healthy and flying, there’s actually been no discussion. “