The 26-year old is set to have his one year contract taken over by the Black Cats after becoming fifth choice striker at Bolton behind Kevin Davies, Henrik Pedersen, El-Hadji Diouf and Les Ferdinand.
It is a remarkable chain of events for the former England U21 forward who only joined Bolton three months ago from Leeds United and was still to make a full senior appearance for the Wanderers.
The Bolton Evening News claims that the Trotters manager Sam Allardyce was keen to loan out the forward but reports in the North East claim that a permanent return to the North East is in the offing.