CHEIK TIOTE is on his way to China to discuss an £8m move away from Newcastle United, head coach Steve McClaren has confirmed.

The Ivorian midfielder was allowed to miss training this morning and will not be considered for the visit of West Ham tomorrow after accepting an offer from Shanghai Shenhua.

And Newcastle boss McClaren has admitted that Tiote is on the verge of leaving, although there is still more to be done before the 29-year-old agrees to leave the Premier League.

McClaren said: “We have the players we have and the squad we have, we will work with the squad we have got.

“There is an approach from a Chinese team and Chiek is on his way to meet them. There is no agreement, nothing has been finalised. But the player is going to have a chat with them.

“I like Cheik, but while it is in the pipeline it is difficult to talk about whether he is here or not here. We will discuss that further if it happens.”

But McClaren, who admitted that new signings Jonjo Shelvey and Henri Saivet are in contention to start against West Ham, insisted that French winger Florian Thauvin is not on his way out amid talk of a return to Marseille.

“Florian is a Newcastle player, he is training this morning and he will be in the squad,” said McClaren. “There’s a lot of noise from outside but this week and maybe the weeks in the future he is a Newcastle player.

“Some players settle very quickly, but unfortunately Florian has needed more time to adapt. He works hard, he is a good player and we like him; that’s why we brought him.”

Newcastle have ruled Siem de Jong out of the visit of West Ham after he had blood coming out of his eye after a collision in training.

McClaren, who will have Emmanuel Riviere back in the squad, also confirmed that Papiss Cisse could be out for eight more weeks with his groin tear.