Terras goal ace Lee Phillips is on trial at Nationwide Conference leaders, Yeovil Town.

The 21-year-old striker is spending the week at Huish Park at the personal invitation of Glovers boss, Gary Johnson.

The former Latvia manager is a big admirer of the former Plymouth Argyle hotshot and is thought to be close to tabling a bid for his services.

Weymouth manager Geoff Butler told Echosport: “The situation is this. Yeovil want to have a good look at Lee and so what they’re doing is putting him up for the week and getting him to join in with their daily training sessions.

“Personally I’m delighted that a big club is showing interest in the player but I’ve warned Gary not to come back with a silly offer for him.

“There’s no guarantee that Lee will end up going there, but I wanted to make it clear from the outset that he’s not available on the cheap.

“We have a valuation which is not negotiable and we certainly wouldn’t entertain the idea until we’ve got a replacement or two lined up.

“At the moment, it’s no more than the lad spending a week training with a bigger club which happens all the time these days.

“He’ll be back training with us on Thursday night and if Gary decides he wants to take it further, then we’ll talk again.”

Despite wanting to help Phillips get back into the professional game, Butler admits he was in two minds as to whether to let him go.

“It’s a risk”, he explained, “and there are three scenarios as I see it. First, Yeovil might want to sign him and we get a decent fee, but it means we’d lose one of our best players.

“Then there’s the risk of him getting injured although Gary said he’d help me out with players if that happened.

“But my biggest worry is if Yeovil come back with an unacceptable offer and we tell Lee we’re not prepared to sell him. That would leave the lad very deflated which is something I don’t want.

“What we can’t do is stand in his way and that’s why we’ve given him permission to go.

“Yeovil is a step in the right direction but I’ll only do what’s best for Weymouth.”

Johnson, who is preparing his side for Saturday’s FA Cup first round clash with Cheltenham, today played down the move.

“Lee doesn’t work full-time”, he said, “and so he’s in an ideal position to come and train for a week. There’s nothing more to it than that at the moment.”

Any transfer money received for Phillips would be subject to a 40 per cent knock-on fee being paid to Plymouth.

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