Former Brighton, Leyton Orient and Crawley favourite training with Chichester City

Cox has been training with the Oaklands Park outfit, who are about to tackle their highest-ever level of football after promotion from the Isthmian south east division.

He played 45 minutes of their friendly win over Christchurch and City coach Darin Killpartrick said: “We’re talking to Dean week to week to see what might work out.”

Cox’s experience, if City do a deal to sign him, would be massive for them at step three.

He has most recently been a manager in Sussex – taking the reins at Lancing then Burgess Hill – but has recently spoken of his desire to get back to playing and said on X yesterday: “Nice to back on a football pitch last night… God how I have missed it.”

Meanwhile Chichester have signed Dion Jarvis from Littlehampton. The versatile left-sided player is their only new recruit so far and played in last Friday’s opening friendly, a 1-1 draw with Pagham, and Tuesday’s Christchurch game.

City boss Miles Rutherford said: “Dion is a player we’ve admired for some time and is a good addition for us.

"We may get one or two more in but won’t bring in players just for the sake of it.

"We’re pleased to have retained almost all of last season’s squad.”

Killpartrick said he and fellow coach Danny Potter were pleased with the attitude and work ethic of the players since they’d returned to pre-season training.

"We won’t get carried away with any results – the focus is on the process and players’ physical condition.

"It’s all about getting a 16-man squad ready for the first league game, but even then I don’t think players reach peak match sharpness until around mid-September.

"We’re happy with what we’ve seen from the players so far.

"In the friendlies we’ve seen some pleasant moves, but we’ve also seen things that need addressing heavily and quickly.”

City’s friendlies continue at home to National South side Worthing on Saturday (3pm) when they hope for a big crowd.