Atletico Madrid coach Gregorio Manzano revealed today that the club's Uruguayan striker Diego Forlan is expected to join Inter "in the next few hours".

"(Forlan) is in talks with Inter, which is an open secret, and he's not in the squad (to play Osasuna tomorrow) because we expect that in the next few hours he'll no longer be a part of our team and will join Inter," said Manzano during a press conference.

The 32-year-old striker, voted Player of the Tournament at the 2010 World Cup, trained with his Atletico team-mates yesterday and today.

However, he requested to be left out of the squad for the trip to Portuguese side Vitoria Guimaraes for the second leg of Atletico's Europa League play-off tie on Thursday, which the Spanish club won 6-0 on aggregate.

Forlan is poised to replace Cameroon striker Samuel Eto'o, who this week joined ambitious Russian side Anzhi Makhachkala from Inter on a three-year contract.

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