Championship news: Middlesbrough join transfer race for Sunderland, Leeds United and Stoke City target

Middlesbrough have reportedly entered the race to sign Sunderland target Tom Cannon from Everton.

The 20-year-old impressed during a loan spell at Preston last season, where he scored eight goals in 20 Championship appearances, but has recently returned from a hamstring injury.

Preston have been keen to re-sign Cannon this summer, while Leeds United, Sunderland and Stoke have also been credited with interest.

Alex Nixon has now stated that Middlesbrough are making a late bid to buy Cannon from Everton with the Toffees having secured attacking targets with more additions in the pipeline which would free him up to leave Goodison Park.

Nixon also claims that Sunderland will also join the chase if they sell Ross Stewart to Southampton.

When asked about Cannon’s situation, Everton manager Sean Dyche told Liverpool World recently: “He’s only just got fit. He played 45 minutes the other day, so we’ll keep an eye on him and make sure he’s well.

“We’re keeping our minds open at this stage. We haven’t got a big squad as everyone knows, we haven’t got massive number of strikers, that’s quite obvious. He’s in the building for now and will view it accordingly as the window comes towards the end.”

Sunderland are still looking to strengthen their striker options while Black Cats boss Tony Mowbray has suggested they could turn to the loan market.

"I think at the level we’re at, and I think possibly the deals we are going to do might be loan deals,” said Mowbray about the potential for loan deals last week.

“The conundrum there is that if you get down to the last day or two, there are probably some amazing loan deals to be done out of the Premier League.

"Once they’ve got those signings done, those peripheral players who will be amazing in the Championship become available and yet if you’ve spent your money because you’re trying to get your business done early, you can’t bring those players in.

"They have great seasons and you think, how have they got him?! Well, it’s because they got him on the last day of the window when they needed him to go out on loan and there weren’t loads of clubs [interested] because they’d already used up their budget. It’s a dangerous scenario."