Cottagers boss Roy Hodgson sees the Nigerian international as the final piece in the jigsaw at Craven Cottage, where the summer has been spent rebuilding.

Hodgson wants a holding midfielder to deputise whenever 32-year-old Danny Murphy is unavailable to the side.

And the 26-year-old Sunderland player, who is competing for a place in a now crowded midfield, fits the bill for the Londoners.

Fulham had been interested in the possibility of signing Dean Whitehead in the wake of a spate of new arrivals at the Stadium of Light.

But Sunderland have no desire to sell their skipper and Fulham switched their sights to Etuhu.

Midfield has gone from being an area of modest competition at Sunderland to being the area with the most intense pressure for places.

Teemu Tainio, Steed Malbranque and El-Hadji Diouf's arrival alongside fellow midfielders Dean Whitehead, Andy Reid, Kieran Richardson, Grant Leadbitter and Dwight Yorke, has severely limited Etuhu's first-team hopes.

And now Fulham are pushing ahead with efforts to sign Etuhu before the window closes.

The Londoners hope to get him for around the £1.5million Sunderland paid Norwich City for his services last summer.