Young Michael had lost his drum and was pleading with his father to find it for him. From the kitchen the shout was that dinner was ready. The various foreground and background noises told Niall Quinn that he was home.

It had been a fortnight since he left, Portugal had visited and Estonia had been seen, but yesterday Quinn was back in the bosom of his family in Sedgefield. Now for the future.

This morning Quinn will scoot up the A1 to Sunderland to see the club doctor to have his back examined once again. He thinks everything should be all right. Yes, the back injury has caused him aggravation all season and, yes, he does realise it could curtail his career before the rest of his two years contracted to Sunderland expire, but the energy and optimism that are fundamental to Quinn mean he is looking to an immediate future that includes playing Premiership and international football.

Before then there will be a rest, for Quinn and his back. It's about six weeks before Sunderland's first pre-season friendly and Quinn said yesterday: "I'll not exactly be breaking my neck to play in it."

His manager Peter Reid will understand, it has been discussed. The pair have forged a relationship based on mutual trust. Reid knows that, even at 34, Quinn, when 100 per cent fit, is playing better than ever. While every day brings the name of another likely replacement for the Irishman - Bordeaux's Lilian Laslandes being the latest - Reid wants his centre forward to remain a central figure of the squad and the dressing-room at Sunderland.

The club also want Quinn to stick around for as long as possible. They are fully aware that they get full value from their club captain and that Quinn's unequalled popularity on Wearside and beyond only does them good. They would never, never, want to alienate him.

Yet it is a time for all concerned to reflect and consider. Quinn, as he said yesterday, is: "Realistic about maybe not making it to 39 as a player," although he and Sunderland have a verbal agreement that he can play for as long as they think is possible: "If I'm still doing it."

"I am still very much committed to Sunderland and Peter Reid," said Quinn. "Whatever I've got left, I will give it to Sunderland, no matter who we sign. I look at people like Mark Hughes and Stuart Pearce - they don't play every week for their club but they do add something. Gary Pallister is someone with a bad back as well, but Middlesbrough know that when he plays he is an asset.

"Being realistic, I know that it will be a lot of hard work for me to see out the two years but then this break should help. The surgeon said that basically he just patched me up to see out the season. It's not a long-term problem, we're not talking something chronic here. Even at it's worst I can still move around. It's just that it's not conducive to playing top-class football."

That, of course, is Quinn's trade. For how much longer, though, has been one of the topics of the past fortnight. The chances are that, if he wasn't "doing it" for Sunderland, he would retire rather than drop down the leagues. "I wouldn't like to bring hope to a small club and then not be able to fulfil it. I think that's a non-starter. I think I'd rather play for a Sunday team."

The coaching question always arises at this point. Quinn has such natural leadership qualities that from the outside he is seen as an obvious manager. The view from within is somewhat different.

"Sometimes I go to matches and get a little bit excited about that. But sometimes I don't.

"I have put my family through a lot through being driven and focused on me and football. Maybe it's time I was a bit more driven and focused on my family - we've thought about going back to Ireland to get the children educated. To be a manager would mean working yourself into the ground."

Then there is the stick. Quinn has experienced it only briefly at Manchester City when he fell out with the chairman Francis Lee, and at Sunderland when he first arrived and was injured. As a manager, he and his wife Gillian both know it would be different. Supporter and media demands would be incessant. Then there are the players.

"I've been lucky, it has been nothing but adulation mainly. Gillian has been great always and she'd probably accept me being a manager. But . . .

"There is also the thing that you'd have to get the offer. People say there would be plenty, but would there? We're not driven by money, it's very important that, so we don't have to keep chasing stardom, chasing the goal. We don't have to be better than the people next door. It could be time for a quieter life, do something else. One thing I do know, though, is that I want to jump out of bed every day and work. And I would like to stay in sport."

Jump onto a horse? "Definitely not horses. We've got over that."

Quinn has recently invested in a bar in Clonmel, but there is not much of the pub landlord about him. But Ireland seems to figure highly in the Quinns' plans.

"The children love it when we go back and they're playing with their cousins. I know that there is a novelty factor in that but it is really good to be part of all that. There are also two sets of grandparents whom they could have a stronger relationship with. Things like that are important. And we might have the chance of a babysitter the odd night."

With that came another shout from the kitchen. Dinner was ready. Niall Quinn hopes to be so come August and then Holland on September 1st. After that, who knows? "We'll see," he said. Be sure, we will see.