Sunderland bid for Wickham agreed

Wickham scores thrilling goal for Ipswich

Ipswich have accepted a bid of £9m from Sunderland for striker Connor Wickham, BBC Sport understands.

Wickham, 18, could be a Sunderland player in 24 hours, subject to agreeing personal terms and passing a medical.

The deal for the England Under-21 international, who made his Ipswich debut aged 16, could eventually be worth £12.5m with add-ons.

He has been linked with a number of Premier League clubs, including Tottenham and Liverpool.

His future has been in doubt despite the fact that he extended his contract with Ipswich until 2014 in April.

Wickham was included in the England squad for the European Under-21 Championship but he did not make an appearance.

• Made Ipswich debut 11 days after his 16th birthday


• Broke Jason Dozzell's record of being Ipswich's youngest player by 46 days


• Scored 13 Championship goals from 33 starts


• Sale would eclipse the £6m deals for both Richard Wright and Kieron Dyer

Since joining Ipswich as a trainee in July 2008 he has made 37 first-team starts and come off the bench 35 times, scoring a total of 15 goals.

In May 2010 Wickham helped England to victory in the European Under-17 Championship, scoring the winning goal as they beat Spain 2-1 in the final.

Ipswich manager Paul Jewell said last week that he expected a lot of interest in Wickham over the summer but that the club were under no pressure to sell.

Jewell said: "We don't want to sell Connor Wickham, but if he wants to leave and the right offer comes in then we'll have to consider it.

"But until then - Connor's never given me any indication he wants to leave - our backs aren't against the wall, we're in control of the situation."

It was thought Liverpool were favourites to sign Wickham but it appears they failed to make a big enough offer.

Sunderland's fresh bid, however, is believed to be sufficient for the Championship club to let him leave.

And it seems Ipswich were prepared for Wickham's departure, having announced the signing of former West Brom and Watford striker Nathan Ellington last week. They have also bought Michael Chopra from Cardiff City.