SUNDERLAND'S Anthony Stokes last night revealed his fears for his Republic of Ireland future after the 'misunderstanding' which led to him being left on Wearside this week.

Stokes was at the Stadium of Light yesterday for a photo-shoot wearing club colours, while his international colleagues prepared for last night's European Under-21 Championship qualifier with Portugal.

The 19-year-old was overlooked by Ireland Under-21s boss Don Givens following the player's failure to turn up for a friendly in Germany last month.

Black Cats boss Roy Keane had contacted Givens in an attempt to diffuse the situation, accepting responsibility for a problem that looks no nearer to an end for Stokes.

And the young striker, who was under the impression Keane was going to inform his country that he had suffered a slight injury, has been left to consider he may never play for the Irish again.

"I have to take my share of the responsibility for that. I regret what happened, but it looks as though I could be on a long international break now," said Stokes.

"I don't know if I'll be selected again.

"As far as I'm concerned I want to get on with playing football for Sunderland, keep my form up and hopefully I'll be picked for Ireland again.

"The row, for me, was silly.

"I had a niggling injury, but he (Givens) went to the press and handled it the way he wanted to handle it.

"It's in the past as far as I'm concerned. I still want to play for my country. I'll play for Ireland whenever I'm called up, but it's not looking too likely that I'll be called up again soon."

Stokes had felt his groin twinge in last month's 3-0 defeat at Wigan and Keane suggested then that he would call Givens to explain why the forward was not going to be available for the Germany fixture.

Sources in Ireland have since suggested Givens has indicated that Stokes will not play for the Under-21s again, a frustration for the Dubliner.

"I had a problem and I spoke to the gaffer (Keane) about it," said Stokes.

"He said that if I was injured I shouldn't travel.

"It was a misunderstanding, I think he thought I was going to be assessed by the medical staff there in Ireland and I thought Sunderland were going to speak to the Irish FA, it was a big mess up."

Given how the international break has arrived after four successive defeats for Sunderland, it has given the squad an opportunity to reflect on their start to the season.

Keane has continued to work his men hard ahead of the visit of Reading next Saturday, although Stokes still thinks Sunderland will benefit from being able to recharge their batteries.

"It's been a break but it hasn't been a rest. It certainly hasn't been easy, the manager has been working us extra because we haven't had a game," said Stokes.

"From my point of view I just wanted to get back to playing games as soon as possible so the break didn't come at a good time. We've had a bit of a bad run and the best way to get over that is to start picking up points.

"I don't think we've let ourselves down except for the Wigan and Luton games. We were terrible against Wigan, really poor and we carried that into the Luton game.

"But we've shown what we can do against Manchester United last week. We have to move on and take the positives into the Reading game. We've shown we can compete with the best teams, but we have to get some points on the board."