Charles N'Zogbia's proposed transfer to Aston Villa will move a step closer to completion on Thursday when the winger flies into England to undergo a medical.
Villa have agreed a £9.5million fee with Wigan for the 25-year-old, who has only one year left of his current deal at the DW Stadium.
The Frenchman is understood to be close to finalising personal terms and will pen a five-year contract with the Midlands club.
The former Newcastle player will end his current break in Dubai and head to Villa's Bodymoor Heath training complex for his assessment by the club's medical staff.
Villa is optimistic of tying up all the loose ends by the weekend, although N'Zogbia will not meet up with his new team-mates until next week as they are currently away at the Barclays Asia Trophy in Hong Kong.
Villa manager Alex McLeish admitted it is unlikely he will add any more than one new face to his squad before the start of the season after seeing his team edge out Blackburn 1-0 to reach the final in Hong Kong.
McLeish conceded N'Zogbia's arrival will probably be the last before the end of the summer window.
"You can never say never but at the moment if we get N'Zogbia, which is looking good, then it's unlikely we will do anything unless there's more trading with the players we already have in the squad," he said.
"At the moment we don't plan to do any more business, I believe we've got some great young players and we've got one or two sleepers in there that could emerge.
"I know Ashley Young's boots are big ones to fill but there are one or two players that could emerge as a result of Ashley leaving the club."
Club owner Randy Lerner has one eye on UEFA's Financial Fair Play regulations, which will be implemented based on clubs' financial results from the upcoming season and the 2012-13 campaign.
And McLeish acknowledged: "We're watching the wages don't spiral out of control. Even bringing in free transfers, everybody thinks they don't cost you anything but they could be 50-60 grand a week in wages and it just escalates the wage bill out of all proportion.
"Randy Lerner has already stated that he wants to keep it tighter and work within a means and that's normal, especially with 2013 coming up, and I believe a lot of clubs will follow suit.
"We have a good squad, I have to pay respect to the lads that are already ther
