CENTRE-back Sam Smith is close to re-signing for Worcester City after returning to the club on trial.

The 28-year-old defender played for Worcester during the 2013-14 campaign and has been offered the chance to be a part of John Snape’s and Lee Hughes’s new-look squad.

Joint boss Snape said he was hopeful Smith, who played for Stafford Rangers last term, would stay at City for the Midland League Premier Division campaign once he had got pre-season training under his belt.

He spent four seasons at Stourbridge before moving to Kidderminster Harriers and going on to have spells at Rushall Olympic, City and Stafford.

“Big Sam has come in and trained excellently,” said Snape who has also got experienced defender Shabir Khan on trial.

“It has only been a couple of sessions but I have been delighted with Sam’s and Shab’s progress.

“Sam is a good, experienced centre-half, is level-headed and would be a great acquisition.

“There is a deal laid out but he wanted to evaluate his fitness in pre-season. At the moment it is looking good.”

Smith and Khan are expected to turn out for the Blue and Whites when they take on Leamington at The Phillips 66 Community Stadium tomorrow night (7.45pm).

It will be the first time Snape and Hughes will get to see their team in action with many new faces, including Brad Birch, Nathan Hayward and Dave Reynolds, eager to make an impact.

Worcester could also come up against ex-players Junior English and Colby Bishop who joined the National League North outfit this summer.

“We are a new side so we will be putting a few little markers in to make sure we know what we are doing and we will learn as we go,” Snape said.

“It will be a fitness exercise so we will review people for 45 minutes to an hour.

“But we want to make the game as competitive as we can because it is our first match.

“We have had a few sessions so far. They have worked hard and there is a lot of enthusiasm there so it is very positive at the moment.

“We have got some good ingredients so it is about getting things right on the pitch.

“There will be some twist and turns in the squad before the start of the season as there always is but hopefully come August 5 we will be ready.”

City were scheduled to visit Gornal on the same day but the fixture has been moved to Thursday (7.45pm).

“We were going to have a double-header on Tuesday,” Snape added.

“Having spoken to Gornal there might be an opportunity for them as they had a lot of interest in the game.

“We decided to move the game so we will be playing instead of training on that night which might suit the squad considering they’re going to have five games in 10 days.”