WES BROWN’S future at Sunderland is in the balance amid fears he could have played his last game for the club.

The experienced former Manchester United defender is out of contract this summer when his four-year stay at the Stadium of Light looks set to come to an end.

Brown, who turns 36 in October, will not face Stoke City at the end of the month and there are no certainties he will be fit to face Southampton a week later on May 2.

After that Sunderland only have four matches remaining and the extent of his knee problem means it is unclear whether he will be fit enough to figure in any of those games.

Brown’s time on Wearside has been blighted by injury but he had a good run in the side under Gus Poyet before he was forced to withdraw from the action in Dick Advocaat’s first game in charge at West Ham on March 21.

The Manchester-born centre-back has been a key member of the Sunderland squad over the last 18 months but with the boardroom looking to make further changes in the summer he could be one of those to depart.

Former Old Trafford team-mate John O’Shea was handed a two-year extension to the deal he signed back in 2011 last October, but there has been no fresh terms for Brown to sign.

Ironically, had he been fit, Brown would have been in a strong position to start the next game because of the disastrous performances of O’Shea and Santiago Vergini against Crystal Palace last weekend.

Both were given the runaround by the Eagles so Advocaat intends to improve his side’s defensive’s frailties before the trip to Stoke, where Mark Hughes has his team operating as a unit and set for a top ten finish.

O’Shea and Vergini are short of competition to fill the central positions at the back, with on loan Liverpool defender Sebastien Coates the only experienced alternative but he has disappointed since moving to the North-East on a season-long loan. Teenager Tom Beadling, yet to play, has also been involved with the first team squad under Advocaat.

Sunderland have won just one of their last ten matches in all competitions and their woeful Premier League form has them sitting just three points above the relegation zone, knowing the sides below them are all showing better form.