CALLUM O’Dowda has left Oxford United to join Bristol City for a fee believed to be worth up to £1.6m.

The 21-year-old from Kidlington has been absent from the U’s pre-season tour to Spain this week after calling in sick on Saturday.

United repeatedly said over the past few days they did not want to sell the winger, but it had become clear the winger did not want to wait to play at a higher level.

Head coach Michael Appleton said: "The reality is Callum has ambitions to play in the Championship and made that pretty clear.

"The irony to this is I’ve had similar conversations with a lot of players over the last couple of months – I actually believe we can match those ambitions and that’s the frustration from my point of view.

"I made it very clear to Callum, and the people that look after him, that he was going to be an integral part of what was hopefully going to be another successful season.

"I actually wanted to build a team round him, but he obviously doesn’t think we have the same ambitions as him."

It is the second big fee received by the club in the space of a week, following Kemar Roofe’s £3m move to Leeds United.

O’Dowda has made 106 appearances for his hometown club, 56 of which have been starts.

Of his 14 goals for the U’s, ten came as he helped the U’s win automatic promotion last season.

In May he became a senior international, winning a first cap for Republic of Ireland against Belarus.