EXCLUSIVE: Dan Ashworth meets Harvey Barnes on Tyneside as £38m man arrives early with agent

Harvey Barnes is on Tyneside and set to undergo a medical after seeing his proposed move to St James' Park accelerate over the past 24 hours.

We can exclusively reveal that the Leicester City star visited our Darsley Park training base alongside his agent at around 4pm yesterday, where Dan Ashworth was present for an introductory meeting with the 25-year-old.

That was followed by a brief consultation with the club's medical team shortly after 5pm as a precursor to his medical, which he is expected to complete in the next two days.

As we revealed yesterday, staff on Tyneside were expecting the winger to complete the formalities over the weekend, but the deal has progressed quicker than first anticipated, with a full agreement - worth a reported £38m - reached with Leicester shortly after Allan Saint-Maximin's move to Al-Ahli accelerated on Tuesday night.

Newcastle have acted fast, not only to land one of Eddie Howe's leading targets, but to also ensure the winger can join our pre-season trip to the USA.

Providing medical checks go smoothly, he could fly out to the USA over the weekend, giving him an outside chance of featuring in our second fixture of the Premier League Summer Series; a meeting with Chelsea in Atlanta on Thursday 27th July.