Former Chelsea centre half David Lee was last week set to join Colchester United on a non-contract basis.

The U's will take a look at the 30-year-old defender - who was playing for Saturday's opponents Bristol Rovers last season - to gauge his fitness with a view to a permanent move, manager Steve Whitton revealed on Thursday.

Lee first broke into the Chelsea team in 1988 having come through the club's youth system.

And he made more than 190 appearances for the Stamford Bridge club, scoring 13 goals.

Having gained a regular place in the side in 1996, he suffered a broken leg which set his career back.

On returning to fitness a year later, he made two substitute appearances before being loaned out to Sheffield United.

But the arrival of the famous Chelsea foreign legion, including Frank Lebeouf, Marcel Desailly and Bernard Lambourde, meant his first-team chances were limited and he was released, joining Bristol Rovers.

There Lee made ten first team appearances last year - including playing in both the 3-0 win and the 1-1 draw over Colchester - before being released at the end of last season.

He went on trial at Notts County before being signed by Crystal Palace, his last club.

Meanwhile there was good and bad news from yesterday's Avon Insurance Combination 5-3 defeat by Peterborough.

Andy Arnott played the full 90 minutes and came through without any reaction to the knee injury which has sidelined the former Brighton midfielder.

The bad news was the injury sustained by striker Tony Lock who aggravated a knee injury which could require a visit to a knee specialist.

"What was really disappointing was Tony looked really sharp," said Whitton.

More good news for the U's boss came with the performance of Lomana Tresor Lua Lua who has shaken off the achilles injury which kept him on the bench against Blackpool.

One cloud on the horizon is the number of bookings picked up by on-loan defender Titus Bramble. He picked up his fourth yellow card of the season in Monday's 1-1 draw at Blackpool. One more and he will face an automatic one game suspension.

Karl Duguid will miss Saturday's match at Notts County after picking up his fifth booking at Bloomfield Road.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.