[1] He signed for Preston North End from Manchester City in January 2002 for £300,000 as David Moyes' side looked to improve from their playoff final defeat to Bolton the season before.

Etuhu became a regular in the Preston side, playing alongside Sean Gregan in centre midfield replacing the injured Mark Rankine.

He would go on to score two more goals in the 2001–02 season as Preston ultimately fell short of the playoffs losing manager David Moyes to Everton in March.

As Preston's formed picked up Etuhu found himself out of the matchday squad altogether but as the side closed in on the playoffs he returned to the bench making substitute appearances in the last seven games including the 1–0 play-off final defeat to West Ham at Cardiff.

In August 2005 Etuhu began his third season in a row in the Preston midfield but indifferent form and the signings of Adam Nowland and David Jones meant he was again reduced to substitute appearances.

By December 2005 Etuhu began to consider his future away from Deepdale as he repeatedly failed to make the matchday squad and in January 2006 he signed for Norwich on loan for the rest of the 2005–06 season.

With Preston failing to include a clause to prevent Etuhu playing against his parent club his first game for Norwich was strangely against the Lilywhites at Carrow Road.

It was incorrectly reported during September 2006 that following the 3–1 defeat at Plymouth Argyle, Etuhu and teammate Youssef Safri traded punches on the team bus on their return journey to East Anglia.

[7] On 29 August 2008, Etuhu announced that he was having a medical with Premier League side Fulham, before joining for a fee of around £1.5 million on a three-year contract at Craven Cottage.

He made his 50th Premier League appearance for them against Newcastle United, in a 0–0 draw on 13 November, when he replaced Zoltan Gera, in the 69th minute in the game at St James' Park.

Etuhu scored his fifth goal in Fulham colours when he netted the second in a 6–2 victory over Peterborough United on 8 January 2011 in the FA Cup 3rd round.

He turned down a callup in August 2011 as a replacement player and stated he would not play for Nigeria coach Samson Siasia, temporarily ending his international career.