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Read more: Is £4m a fair price to pay? Dominic Shaw looks at Nugent's record

Boro have had a £4m offer for striker David Nugent accepted by Leicester.

The Premier League side are prepared to let the Liverpool-born hitman go as he is only a fringe figure for the Foxes.

Now Boro chiefs have to persuade him to step down a level to revive his career in the Championship, the division where he made his name.

Leicester told Nugent of the Boro bid on Friday and gave him permission to talk to Aitor Karanka and Rockliffe chiefs.

The striker wasn’t included the squad for Leicester’s 4-2 win over Sunderland in their Premier League opener on Saturday.

Nugent, 30, scored just five goals in 32 games last season but was mainly used from the bench behind Leonardo Ulloa, Jamie Vardy and Andrej Kramaric.

But he was impressive in his stint in the second tier.

He rattled in 22 goals as Leicester won the title and were promoted in 2013-14 and he bagged a healthy 16 in both of the previous seasons in the Championship for them.

Before that he had spells in the top flight with Portsmouth where he won the FA Cup in 2008 and then had a loan spell at Burnley.

But he made his name in the Championship with Preston when 33 goals in 94 games earned him an England call up – the first player from the club since Tom Finney – when he scored in his only game, coming off the bench against Andorra to net late in a 3-0 win in 2007.

Aitor Karanka believes powerful Nugent’s strength on the ball, his ability to muscle his way into the box, his hard work, his link up play and his proven record as a goal-getter in this division can add to the skill set and fire-power up front.

Boro made a move for Nugent last summer when he was out of contract but despite several rounds of talks they could not push a move through.

With several clubs keen on the player Boro withdrew from talks saying the did not want to get into a wages arms race.

Nugent eventually signed a new deal at Leicester, then managed by Boro old boy Nigel Pearson and started the season in the team.

But the arrival of £8m Ulloa from Brighton and then £9m Croatian Kramaric in January and £7m Japan striker Shinj Okazaki this summer has left him well down the pecking order at Leicester.