SUNDERLAND are making progress in their bid to strengthen the forward line, with Tony Mowbray revealing the Black Cats have "bids in" for strikers and the head coach hopeful that a breakthrough is "close".

Sunderland have added two strikers to their ranks already this summer but Eliezer Mayenda, who was brought in as long term project in any case, suffered an injury in his first training session and Hemir - who is only 19 - is the only fit frontman on the club's books with Ross Stewart not expected to be ready to return until the end of next month.

Sunderland yesterday completed the signing of goalkeeper Nathan Bishop from Manchester United, but bringing in a striker is very much the priority at the Stadium of Light.

The Wearsiders might not manage to get a deal over the line before Sunday's Championship opener against Ipswich but Mowbray is in no doubt that a new striker will arrive long before the September 1 deadline.

"We're hopefully close," said Mowbray on Wednesday afternoon, speaking at the EFL season launch at the Stadium of Light.

"We had a little meeting before I came here today. I think we have bids in for footballers.

"It's not out of our hands because we are pushing hard to try and make sure we make additions to that part of the pitch."

What's not clear at this stage is whether Sunderland's next new striker arrival will be from the UK or overseas.

"There are lists of players you look at and you have list one, two, three and four," said Mowbray.

"If one slips through your fingers because it turns out he's too expensive and you can't quite do it or the club want too much money, you move to the next player.

"On our list we have English-based players, we have foreign-based players and as we work through the list, whichever one falls in in whichever order, it'll be the one who comes.

"It's not exclusively only foreign based players from a certain country, there are English based players on there. It all comes down to the conversations and whether we can get a deal done."

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Hemir will lead the line for Sunderland against Ipswich on Sunday and although the teenager has impressed in pre-season since his arrival from Benfica, Mowbray remains reluctant to expect too much too soon.

"Hemir wasn't really brought as a number one centre forward, he was a project to nurture and grow and give him some game time." said Mowbray.

"We're not expecting him to play 46 games. We hoped he might play 20 and someone else plays 25 and we might play two together sometimes, but as we sit here at the moment he has to try and play 46 games.

"That won't be the case I'm pretty sure. Before the window shuts we will have some help for him at that end of the pitch."