Jack Colback will consider his future at Sunderland if he cannot gain a regular start.
"It's a make-or-break season for me," he told The Journal.
"I ended the season playing and if I'm going to take a step back now, then it's not going to be good enough.
"I definitely want to be involved in games. I'm 21 now - not 17 or 18, when being on the bench would be good experience for me.
"I need to be playing Premier League games now and that is what I intend to do. I just need to keep doing what I was doing before. Hopefully I'll be in the first XI when the season starts now. The goal for me has to be to continue what I was doing at the end of last season. It's nice to hear that the manager is giving you praise and I will continue to do what I'm doing, keep my head down and go on from there."
