Parkinson: No way back for Cats outcast Aiden – anyway, he’s injured

Phil Parkinson says he has not changed his stance on Aiden McGeady’s exclusion from the Sunderland first team.

McGeady was told to train with the Under-23s and look for a new club late last year, but returned to the club after a loan spell at Charlton Athletic came to an end.

The topic has been back on the agenda amongst supporters this week after Parkinson’s side slipped to two disappointing results against Portsmouth and Rochdale.

McGeady had also this week hit back at former teammate Lewis Morgan, who had made some eye-opening comments about his time at the club.

While not discussing his exclusion directly, McGeady told the Open Goal podcast that Morgan’s comments had been wrong.

Initially, Parkinson suggested that his decision to exclude McGeady was based on team culture.

This summer, he added that he was keen to protect the pathway for the club’s young players, particularly after Dan Neil thrived in the club’s pre-season fixtures.

On Thursday, Parkinson said he would not comment o n M c G e a d y ’s o w n c o m - ments, as the events in question took place prior to his arrival at the club.

More generally, he noted the imminent return of attacking midfielder Elliot Embleton as another reason why he would not alter his stance.

Embleton was set to step up his recovery with another appearance for the Under23s yesterday, after playing 45 minutes in the 5-3 win over Fulham earlier this week.

“Aiden at the moment has had to have an injection in his knee anyway,” Parkinson said.

“He had a spell of training with the Under-23s but at the moment he's in the treatment room with a similar problem to Jordan (Willis).

“As I said in the summer, we've got Elliot Embleton, who is playing again today for the Under-23s.

“He's another player who I'm looking forward to seeing emerge for us.

"Unfortunately we've had to be patient with him but if he can get through today, we're expecting him in the run of games we have coming to get some minutes with the first team.”

Embleton has not played a competitive game since last September, but Black Cats boss Parkinson has regularly insisted that he will have a big part to play at Sunderland when fit.