This morning, the player and Sunderland were looking to resolve minor details surrounding the deal.

But the club-to-club side of things has been agreed.

The 24-year-old, who joined the club in a £3million move from Reading in June, 2007, has made just nine appearances for the Black Cats and spent last season on loan at Sheffield United.

And now he is set follow striker Michael Chopra out of Sunderland in the wake of the Tynesider's move to Cardiff which became a permanent deal on Wednesday.

Although new manager Steve Bruce has signalled that he wants to give a fresh start to his squad when they return to pre-season training next week, there are clearly some players who are already surplus to requirements.

Bruce is being serious when he says that he will not pre-judge the players who kept the club in the Premier League on the last day on the 2008-09 campaign.

But there are some whose time at Sunderland has clearly come to an end – Chopra being one, Halford being another.

And Sunderland can expect quite a few more departures in the next few weeks as the club looks to trim its squad down to more workable numbers.

The Black Cats have already signalled that rather than arranging more season-long loans, they simply prefer to permanently move on players who are not going to be part of the new set-up.

Hibernian want to sign up Republic of Ireland international Anthony Stokes for example, while fellow Sunderland striker Roy O'Donovan has been linked with Championship clubs and Scottish sides.