Derby County have signed former Stoke City regular Erik Pieters in their battle to stay in the Championship.
Pieters, now aged 36, has been drafted in as a free agent by former Stoke captain John Eustace, who has been juggling a long injury list since taking over at Pride Park.
The defender – who has played at centre-half as well as left-back since leaving Stoke in 2019 – has been training with the squad over the last couple of weeks since a short trial at Middlesbrough. He had spent time on trial at Luton Town too but hasn’t played competitively since last March at West Bromwich Albion.
He becomes Eustace’s second Derby signing, following the arrival of free agent Kemar Roofe, and could make his debut against Preston North End in a rearranged game next Wednesday, when Derby will be looking to continue a run of three successive wins and pile pressure on the teams around them at the bottom of the division, including Stoke..
Pieters said: “Before I came here, I trained with Middlesbrough. But then the gaffer (Eustace) sent me a text asking, ‘What’s your situation?’ Obviously Derby is a bit closer to home than Middlesbrough, so I was like, ‘I’m still a free agent and I’m ready to go’.
“So then I trained with the lads and here I am. I think they were pleased with what I did.
“I was at Luton Town earlier this season but when that ended and I didn’t have any clubs lining up for me I just started sending calls out and texts to see what was available.
“I was first in contact with the gaffer when he was at Blackburn, and then out of the blue he texted me back when he was at the Derby. So yeah, it is all good.”
Pieters and former Stoke captain Eustace will be up against Stoke on the final day of the season.
Lars-Jorgen Salvesen is out for the season after undergoing knee surgery. Curtis Nelson is also out until the summer, as is David Ozoh and probably Dajuane Brown. Corey Blackett-Taylor is a long-term lay-off, Ben Osborn is likely to miss most of the remaining fixtures and Sondre Langas declined surgery to play against Plymouth last time out.
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