GEORGE Elokobi admits that his Colchester United future is uncertain after leaving the U's to join Braintree Town on a month's loan deal.

The 30-year-old centre-half is looking forward to proving his fitness as an Iron player after failing to break into U's boss John McGreal's plans at the start of the League Two season.

A calf problem kept Elokobi sidelined at the end of last season and despite recovering well over the summer and working hard in training, he is yet to make a start for Colchester this year.

So he was relieved to get a call from Braintree and felt good after his debut 90 minutes in the Iron's 2-1 Vanarama National League defeat by Boreham Wood on Tuesday.

“I want to get the match fitness and do well for Braintree," said Elokobi.

“I don’t know what my future is with Colchester.

“I’m contracted to them until the end of the season but I haven’t been in the plans there as I haven’t been playing.

“I know that’s football and it’s nothing personal; I just need to make sure I do well for Braintree Town Football Club and we’ll see what happens.

“It’s a month at the moment but you never know.

“Hopefully I’ll enjoy it and I can carry on playing as it’s a good level.

“The Conference is very competitive and there is a good quality of player in there, so I’m looking forward to it.

“The 90 minutes (against Boreham Wood) was well received by my body and I’m looking to crack on again on Saturday (against York) as there’s plenty more to come."

Elokobi admitted that the chance to come to Braintree came as a surprise, but he jumped at the chance to join and is keen to prove he is ready for action.

He added: “The move came as a surprise to me as I went in to train with the (Colchester) lads on Tuesday morning and the director of football, Tony Humes, told me about the interest from Braintree.

“He asked if I’d like to come out to get games under my belt and I said straight away that I would.

“I haven’t been playing and it’s an opportunity for me to get playing and to try to help Braintree Town.

“The game against Boreham Wood has now given me a platform to build from but I’ve been fit pretty much from day one in pre-season.

“I haven’t missed a day’s training and have been training really hard.

“I’ve done so much running after training; doing things like running 20 box-to-box runs after a hard training session.

“That shows the volume of running I’ve been doing and I know that all I need is games.

“Unfortunately those games haven’t come so when this opportunity came I said yes because there’s only so much running you can do."