Jaze Kabia training with Cork City as the club looks to bolster squad

The Rebel Army are also in talks with Matt Healy over extending his stay beyond the end of June when his loan spell concludes.

CITY BOUND?: Jaze Kabia during his spell with Shelbourne. Photo by Ben McShane/Sportsfile

Cork City interim manager Richie Holland has confirmed that striker Jaze Kabia is currently training with the club with a view to making the move permanent.

The Cork native - formerly of Cobh Ramblers and Shelbourne - was released by Scottish side Livingston back at the end of May following several loan spells at clubs such as Falkirk, Greenock Morton and Queen of the South.

Jaze, who is the son of former City favourite Jason Kabia, is now back on Leeside as he looks to recover from an injury issue.

“Jaze has come in for a couple of days training,” admitted Holland.

“He’s obviously back from Scotland and he’s had a bit of an injury as well so at the moment he has just come in to train with us.

“He’s had a bit of a long lay-off and stuff like that and he’s back over so he’s training. We will see what happens, we will see what happens.

“That will be Liam’s (Buckley) remit there and for us as coaches we are looking at him as well to see how he does.”

Holland also confirmed that City are in talks about making Matt Healy’s move to the Rebel Army permanent.

Matt Healy celebrates after scoring. Photo by Eóin Noonan/Sportsfile

Healy’s loan deal with the club concludes at the end of June but following his release from Ipswich Town, the playmaker looks likely to move to Cork long-term.

The Leesiders are looking to bolster their squad for the second half of the season, which begins on Friday night away to Derry City, following the news that Ethon Varian will miss the rest of the season with an Anterior Cruciate Ligament knee injury while goalkeeper Tobi Oluwayemi has also returned to Celtic.

“There’s discussions at the moment with Matt,” added Holland.

“Liam is dealing with that. Matt is a very good young player, and we are hoping he stays.

“You can see yourself in the game where we are quite light at the moment so there’s quite a few (areas) that we are looking at.

“We won’t go into great detail about them but that’s something myself, Liam and the staff are looking at, we’re looking at a number of players.

“He (Varian) did it two weeks ago in training. It was similar to Darragh (Crowley), same kind of action, receiving a football and trying to open up. Unfortunately, he went down and you fear the worst straight away.

“It’s the ones where there is nobody around that are the ones that are long-term. We were waiting in hope that the scan will come back, and it wouldn’t be as bad as first feared.

“But it’s come back that he’s done his ACL and he’s out for the rest of the season. He’s done really well so we will look after him here, make sure his rehab is done and hopefully himself and Darragh are back as quick as the can.”