NEDUM Onuoha has confirmed his desire to join Sunderland if Manchester City opt to sell him during next month's transfer window.

Onuoha is currently on a season-long loan at the Stadium of Light, and Black Cats boss Steve Bruce is expected to attempt to make the transfer permanent at the turn of the year.

Price could be an issue, as Onuoha still has three-and-a-half years of his current deal to run and City are likely to value the versatile defender at up to £5m.

It also remains to be seen whether Roberto Mancini is willing to cash in on the 24-year-old, who made 94 appearances for City prior to moving to Wearside in the summer.

However, if the two parties are able to reach an agreement for a permanent switch, Onuoha will be more than happy to put pen to paper at the Stadium of Light.

"I would be happy to come here if Manchester City want to sell me," said the former England Under-21 international. "But it is down to City at the end of the day.

"The bottom line is that I'm contracted to them, so it's up to them if they want to sell me. Whatever they want to do with me is essentially what I have to deal with, and who knows what they want?

"The people who go out on loan get watched, and there's someone at City called Mike Rigg who's in contact with me once every week or so, checking to see how I'm doing.

"They want to see how you're progressing, because essentially they've sent you out to get more games and be a better asset for them. At the same time, though, you never know what's going to happen."

Onuoha has spent most of his Sunderland career at right-back, but the next few weeks will almost certainly see him filling in at centre-half in the absence of Titus Bramble, Michael Turner and Anton Ferdinand.

He was switched to partner John Mensah at Fulham on Saturday, despite the presence of Paulo Da Silva on the bench, and is expected to start alongside the Ghanaian when Bolton visit the Stadium of Light on Saturday.

The positional change has put his developing relationship with Jordan Henderson on hold, but having made a number of centre-half appearances for Manchester City in the past, he is more than happy to plug the gap that has appeared at the heart of the Sunderland defence.

"Potentially, I'm going to be there for a while," said Onuoha. "But you don't know - Titus might be back within two weeks and although Anton might be out for a month, it might be shorter.

"You never know, and it's down to the manager whether or not he plays me in the centre. He has Paulo as well, so we'll have to see what happens.

"But when he asked me to move inside at the weekend, everything felt fine. To be honest, because of the way we've been playing recently, I was enjoying my time at right-back and I thought we might have brought on another centre-back.

"But everything felt comfortable when I moved, and a lot of that is down to John. He is a good person and a good player - that made it a simple adjustment."

Onuoha coped with the threat posed by both Diomansy Kamara and Andrew Johnson at the weekend, but Saturday's game will see him pitted against a much more physical presence in the shape of Bolton striker Kevin Davies.

"Anyone going into a game against Bolton knows what they're going to be up against," he said. "I don't think I've ever seen anyone have a really good game against Davies.

"People know him and respect him. They know they have to be on their game. (Johan) Elmander has also been in really good form recently - he got player of the month last month - and he plays well alongside Davies.

"It will be a tough game. For as much as we've done well at home, we've had a lot of tough games - we've just managed to rise to the occasion really. I think we'll need to do exactly the same thing again this weekend."