Aiden McGeady's knee injury may rule him out for the remainder of the season, according to Alex Neil. The Sunderland boss has not entirely written off McGeady's chances of playing a part in the run-in, but for the first time he has admitted that there is a 'question mark' over the 35-year-old's involvement.
McGeady has not featured since suffering a medial collateral ligament injury after coming off the bench in Sunderland's 1-1 draw at Shrewsbury Town back in November. The injury was expected to rule him out for around three months but Neil said recently the former Celtic man had got into a 'cycle' where would begin to join in training only to suffer a setback.
With less than a month remaining of the League One campaign, time is running out for McGeady - who is out of contract in the summer - to return to full fitness and then get up to speed. "At the moment, there's a question mark about whether Aiden will be able to feature between now and the end of the season," said Neil.
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"It'll really be determined by how he proceeds with his rehab, and how he shows up between now and the end of the season. I'm hopeful that he'll get himself into some semblance of managing to get onto the pitch, but there's certainly no pressure on him in terms of doing that. It'll really just be a case of whether he can get himself up and running between now and then."
Ahead of tomorrow's game against Gillingham at the Stadium of Light, Neil said that all Sunderland's players who were away on international duty have returned to Wearside unscathed. Corry Evans and Trai Hume were away with Northern Ireland, Ross Stewart was away with Scotland, Bailey Wright with Australia, while Dan Neil and Callum Doyle were on duty for England U20 and U19 respectively.
And Alex Pritchard and Nathan Broadhead are in contention to be involved against the Gills, although Neil will make a late decision on them. Pritchard has not played since suffering an ankle injury against Charlton at the beginning of March, in the same game that Broadhead picked up a hamstring issue.
Neil said: "Alex and Nathan have been making really good progress this week. They have been on the grass, and we'll make a late call on whether they’re going to be involved in the game on Saturday."
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