National League side rejects Aiyegbeni

Boreham Wood manager, Luke Garrard has played down the possibility of former Everton and Portsmouth striker Yakubu Ayegbeni joining the club after he played in Saturday’s 5-0 friendly loss to Reading.

The 33-year-old striker is a free agent after leaving Turkish Super Lig club Kayserispor and played an hour for Wood as they were comfortably beaten by the Royals.

“Realistically I think he has offers and ambitions to play at the highest level available,” said Garrard. “I’ll never say never.”

The Nigerian international is the second-highest scoring African in Premier League history and has 96 goals to his name for Portsmouth, Everton, Middlesbrough and Blackburn Rovers.

Asked how the powerful forward came to link up with the Meadow Park club, Garrard said: “I spoke to a friend of mine who is friend with Yak and he said where he was at.

“He’s back in the area, he lives about five minutes away from the club and he was available to come in for training sessions.

“In terms of today it was just nice to get him involved. He is of a certain level and he is a model pro. He has been involved for the last two sessions and again today and we go from there.

“The influence he will have on the youngsters [is huge]. We had two on the bench yesterday (vs Brentford) and four today. It’s a learning curve for them and it’s massive for them.

“He’s played at the top level on a consistent basis. He’s low-maintenance, never late and he’s been a pleasure.”