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Aiden McGeady has been told to “knuckle down” with Everton for the sake of his international career.

The 29-year-old winger was the subject of interest from Sunderland on transfer deadline day but is understood to have turned down a move away from Goodison.

McGeady, who has been dogged by injuries of late, has made just one appearance for Everton so far this season.

But after a poor first-half performance against Barnsley in the Capital One Cup last week, McGeady was replaced at half-time.

With the addition of Gerard Deulofeu and Aaron Lennon to the squad this summer, McGeady faces even greater competition for his place this season but Republic of Ireland No2 Roy Keane says he must “knuckle down”.

“They’ve obviously got a big squad,” Keane said of Everton.

“But competition is good for players.

“Aiden’s just got to knuckle down to try to get into Everton’s first team which is never easy because they’ve got a lot of quality players.

“They’ve invested as well over the last couple of days but it’s up to Aiden to knuckle down and play regular football because the big problem for us, I’ve said it before, is that players turn up for international week not playing week in week out and it does catch up with you eventually.”