National League Braintree Town have signed Jay Emmanuel-Thomas and put him straight into the matchday squad to play Truro City, five months after he was released from jail for smuggling drugs.
Chairman Lee Harding told BBC Essex the former Arsenal and Ipswich Town striker had “repaid his debt to society” as he signed an undisclosed contract after a brief spell with AFC Totton.
Emmanuel-Thomas, 34, served more than 10 months of a four-year sentence for masterminding the importation of £600,000 worth of cannabis.
Braintree manager Steve Pitt said he had been talking to the striker’s agent while Emmanuel-Thomas was still in custody but “hadn’t felt the timing worked”.
