MORE than a year since his last league start for Wanderers – can Medo Kamara use the international break to finally find an exit at the Macron Stadium?

After failing to manufacture a move in the last transfer window, the Sierra Leone midfielder has jetted out for a rare competitive outing, representing his country in an African Nations Cup qualifier against continental champions Ivory Coast.

This Sunday’s game, played in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, should attract enough attention for the 27-year-old to consider it a shop window.

Medo might well welcome some respite in what has been a desperately disappointing 12 months on a personal level, where attempts to get into Neil Lennon’s first team plans have fallen spectacularly short.

His last Championship start was last August in a 1-0 defeat at Leeds United after which he was dropped to the bench by Dougie Freedman until the narrow Capital One Cup defeat at Chelsea.

Little did he know in the glamorous surroundings of Stamford Bridge that it would be the last time he wore a senior shirt for Wanderers for quite some time.

But where did it go wrong for the ball-winner, ear-marked as a man who could lead the Whites towards the top six by Freedman?

Though Medo took time to adjust fully to the English way of life, including some bureaucratic hassles bringing his family into the country soon after his arrival from FK Partizan, he quickly won favour with the Bolton fans.

Freedman’s style of football was by no means embraced on the terraces – yet Medo’s heart-on-sleeve style in a holding midfield role made him a cult figure in his early months with the club.

“Look out for him because he’s going to be a top player,” said Freedman on the eve of last season.

But that initial promise never materialised and even a few weeks into the new campaign it was clear that his game was too similar to that of midfield partner Jay Spearing.

Fans’ opinions had also started to change, with the two defensive types blamed for a lack of attacking threat in a struggling team.

Lennon’s arrival last October brought about an immediate sea change in the style of play, particularly in midfield – and both Spearing and Medo proved high-profile casualties.

Although the Whites boss was a little guarded on his exact reasons for dropping Medo entirely from the first-team reckoning at the time, it is now known he had concerns over the player’s fitness and how much travelling to fulfil his international duties were taking out of him.

A permanent move to Maccabi Haifa, where Medo spent the last five months of last season on loan, looked a safe bet. But a change in management scuppered the deal and he was forced to head back to Bolton to try and make the best of a bad situation.

“Medo did very well in Israel but that has been and gone now,” the midfielder’s representative Tony Antoniou told The Bolton News in July. “He doesn’t have anything to prove but he’s going back to Bolton to try and get himself a place in the first team. His focus is on Bolton.”

Medo did not shine in any of the pre-season outings he got, and was soon demoted to the development group, where even appearances with the Under-21s dried up.

The biggest single inhibiting factor for Medo, however, has been the contract he signed in January 2013, which made him among the squad’s highest earners.

In a squad stocked high with central midfielders he was viewed as an instantly expendable asset on Lennon’s arrival – and yet the same wages have been a prohibitive factor in signing elsewhere.

Medo has less than a year remaining on his deal, which looks destined to drop down to nothing next summer.

But efforts to land a loan deal elsewhere have also proved difficult – Bristol City the latest club known to have cast their eye over his situation at Bolton.

For a player linked with a Premier League move to Spurs before his arrival at Wanderers, to have so few suitors is some fall from grace.

And that’s why this weekend’s qualifier could give him the right stage on which to showcase the talent that convinced Freedman to shell out such a hefty fee for him in the first place.

A move in the loan window would suit both parties down to the ground.