CONNOR WICKHAM admits he is approaching ‘make-or-break time’ as he attempts to fulfil his potential in a Sunderland shirt.

Wickham is about to embark on his fifth season as a Sunderland player, yet while there have been flashes of inspiration during his 91 senior appearances for the club, he is still to fully justify the £8.1m outlay that took him from Ipswich Town in 2008.

His best spell for the Wearsiders came at the end of the 2013-14 campaign, when his goals played a crucial role in the Gus Poyet-inspired ‘Great Escape’, but while last season was the first in which he could claim to be a first-team regular, his final tally of five Premier League goals was something of a disappointment.

In Wickham’s defence, he was rarely played in his preferred role as a central striker, but while his signing of a new four-and-a-half year deal last December provided some assurance about his future, the 22-year-old admits he is now at an age where he needs to start living up to his billing.

“It’s a very important season for me,” said Wickham, who scored Sunderland’s third goal as they opened their pre-season campaign with a 4-2 win over Darlington on Thursday. “I was thinking about things when I came back into training the other day, and this is my fifth season here at Sunderland now.

“I can’t really believe it’s been four years already since I signed, but there is eventually a time where you have to really start thinking about what you’re doing, why you’re here and what you want to achieve. I think, for me, that time is now. I have to keep working hard and then things will come.”

Wickham was a second-half substitute at Heritage Park on Thursday, and after replacing Jermain Defoe, it is telling that the striker caught the eye in a central attacking role.

Last season, he spent much of his time on the left flank, and while Dick Advocaat’s preference for a three-man attack will continue to restrict his opportunities to play down the middle, he is determined to play in a more central position next season.

With Steven Fletcher potentially on his way out of the Stadium of Light, Wickham is keen to portray himself as an ideal physical foil for Defoe, and is determined to use the remainder of the pre-season programme to convince Advocaat of his qualities.

“Last season, I was put on the wing for the majority of the season, so this year the target has to be to get a bit closer to the centre of the pitch,” he said. “I want to be playing down the middle, and be more of a target man. I think that enables me to bring more to the team.

“That was the case at the end of two seasons ago. I was put down the middle for the last few games, when I came back from Leeds, and that’s when I scored the goals and had my best spell for Sunderland.

The Northern Echo:

“That’s the point I want to make again. If I get the chance to play down the middle, as I did in the game (against Darlington), then I know I can get in behind people and score goals. When we played more direct, we got our results.”

Wickham will be part of the Sunderland squad that heads to the United States this weekend for a three-game tour that will feature matches against Sacramento Republic, Club Pachua and Toronto FC.

The priority is to build up fitness ahead of the season opener with Leicester City on August 8, but with decent crowds anticipated in North America, Wickham claims it would be wrong to view the results of the games as an irrelevance.

“We’ll be working on our fitness,” he said. “But I think we’ll be looking to get a few wins too. We’ve got some tough games out there, so that should really test where we are come the end of the week.

“We’ll see where we are then, although it’s mainly about getting the fitness levels up, The climate, with the humidity and heat, is going to be a fair bit different than it is over here, so that will be another challenge for us. We’re looking forward to it, and hopefully we’ll get a bit more fitness out of the games.”

Sunderland are still to confirm their squad for North America, but it is anticipated that Adam Johnson will not travel as he prepares to stand trial for three counts of sexual activity with a child and one of grooming.

Meanwhile, Inter Milan have confirmed they will seek FIFA arbitration over Sunderland’s refusal to sign Ricky Alvarez this summer.

Inter claim the Black Cats agreed to a £7.5m buy-out clause in Alvarez’s loan agreement that should have been automatically triggered by last season’s survival in the top-flight. However, Sunderland officials argue the clause is invalid because Alvarez was suffering from a long-standing knee injury that restricted him to just 12 Premier League appearances last term.