De Gea undergoes Man Utd medical

De Gea made his debut for Spanish club Atletico in 2009

Atletico Madrid goalkeeper David De Gea is having a medical ahead of his proposed move to Manchester United.

The 20-year-old will replace Edwin van der Sar at Old Trafford and will cost a reported £18.9m.

The Premier League champions have already signed defender Phil Jones from Blackburn and last week brought in Ashley Young from Aston Villa.

De Gea was part of the Spain squad which won the European Under-21 Championship on Saturday.

Van der Sar made more than 250 appearances for Sir Alex Ferguson’s side and won four Premier League titles before retiring after their Champions League final defeat by Barcelona in May.

Ferguson currently has goalkeepers Tomasz Kuszczak, Anders Lindegaard and Ben Amos on his books but De Gea is expected to be number one if he completes his move.

Liverpool goalkeeper Pepe Reina, who seems likely to face De Gea when the north-west rivals meet at Anfield in October, reacted positively to his fellow Spaniard’s move.

“I very much welcome this news because David is a great keeper,” he told La Gaceta.

“When it becomes official he is going to start working to prove in the Premier League what a good goalkeeper he is.”

Former Manchester United striker Diego Forlan also believes Ferguson has picked a worthy successor to Van der Sar.

Forlan, 32, has played alongside De Gea at Atletico for the past two years and told BBC Sport earlier this month that the goalkeeper is a star in the making.

He said: “There’s no doubt that David will become a very, very good player, because he has the talent.

“He is tall, strong on crosses, a good shot stopper and distributes the ball very well.

“I suppose he is similar to Van der Sar in a lot of ways. Even though he is very young, he gives a lot of confidence to his defenders and has a lot of talent.”