Elgin City offer trial opportunity to Toronto striker and former Macclesfield winger playing Swedish football as assistant manager Stefan Laird points to Borough Briggs injury problems
An English winger from Sweden and a Canadian attacker are trying to win a deal on trial at Elgin.
The Black and Whites featured left winger Abimbola Obasoto and striker Emile Kisse in Tuesday’s 4-1 friendly win over Fraserburgh.
Both came on as half time substitutes, with ex-Macclesfield player Obasoto having to go off with a hamstring pull midway through.
City’s assistant manager Stefan Laird said: “The trialists did reasonable well.
“It was disappointing for Abs who pulled his hamstring there. He was doing well.
“He's from England but he's been playing over in Sweden.
“Then we had Eli who is currently signed to Toronto and is looking to try and get a club here.
“The boys are making big sacrifices to go over and try and win themselves a contract. Fair play to them.”
Laird is frustrated that Elgin have several players on the injured list over pre-season, and revealed that he and manager Allan Hale are keen to make more signings.
So far they have brought in defender Connall Ewan from Ross County, winger Jack MacIver who scored twice against Fraserburgh, former Finnish under-21 international Miko Virtanen and ex-Aberdeen keeper Tom Ritchie.
Currently crocked for City are stopper Kyle Girvan who is recovering from a broken metatarsal, Owen Cairns who could be out until October with a knee problem, and Ryan Sargent who has an infected knee.
Russell Dingwall and Mark Gallagher both picked up knocks against Fraserburgh and may not be risked in any further friendlies, with Dingwall picking up a calf strain in the second pre-season training session and still not fully recovered.
In addition, Kane Hester, Matthew Cooper, Ross Draper and Lewis Hyde are aiming to return to full fitness after finishing last season with injuries.
“We've unbelievably had multiple injuries in pre-season. We’re getting them back now and trying to get everybody as fit as possible.
“We've got to be really careful. It really hurt us last year. People say ‘don't say it's an excuse’ but I think if we'd have kept everybody fit last year we could have ran it pretty close.
“Hopefully we get a few more bodies in. Certainly the manager’s working on one or two so we'll see how that progresses over the next couple of weeks.