YORK City’s new signing Eugen Bopp has signalled his intention to break straight into the Blue Square Bet Premier side’s first team.

The ex-Nottingham Forest midfielder was Bootham Crescent chief Gary Mills’ only signing prior to last night’s deadline for emergency loan signings, although he has joined as a free agent.

Bopp, 28, played for German third division side FC Carl Zeiss Jena last season and, more recently, had spells on trial at Watford and Scunthorpe in this country.

A former Bayern Munich youth player, Kiev-born Bopp boasts German nationality but moved to Forest in 2001, where current City defender Chris Doig and England international Jermaine Jenas were amongst his team-mates during a five-year spell.

He later spent a season at Rotherham and two years with Crewe but left England after Portsmouth, then in the Premier League, were prevented from signing him during the 2009/10 campaign when a transfer embargo was placed on the club.

Mills estimates that Bopp is currently 80 per cent match fit but, with a midfield place up for grabs for tomorrow’s home match with play-off rivals Southport due to Scott Kerr’s knee injury, the City boss is pondering whether to throw the former Championship performer straight into the team.

“Eugen’s a superb player and I’m delighted to have signed him,” Mills said.

“He’s been training with us for a couple of weeks and will be here until the end of the season now.

“He brings more competition to the squad and wants to be in the team straight away so we’ll have to wait and see how that develops but, if I can get him playing to his capabilities, he will be a great acquisition so it’s up to Eugen really. He’s been at Scunthorpe and Watford but nothing materialised for him there.

“He wasn’t too sure about dropping into the Conference and what that might mean for his career but, once he had seen the club and worked with the players, he was pestering me on the phone every day to become a part of things.

“He’s a good age and it’s an opportunity for him to come to a good club and get himself in the side.

“He’s not match fit and the contract he is on reflects that but I think it will only take him a couple of matches to get up to full speed. It’s not as if he’s come here 30 or 40 per cent fit – he’s probably about 80 per cent of what he needs to be.

“I also have to thank the chairman for letting me bring him in as well. He has backed me every time I have asked to bring somebody in.”

Bopp’s arrival means Mills is now carrying a squad of 26 senior players and, justifying that sizeable roster, the Minstermen chief added: “I’ve gone way beyond the size of the squad I wanted but you only have to look at what has happened over the last few weeks.

“Everybody was asking me why I had so many centre-backs and then, all of a sudden, we were down to two.”

As well as Kerr, joint-top scorer Jason Walker will also be missing for tomorrow’s match but Lanre Oyebanjo, Ben Gibson and David McGurk have all returned to training this week.

Mills is waiting for the results of a scan on Kerr’s knee while Walker is still being troubled by a hamstring problem with the City manager adding: “It’s not gone again but it’s tight and is restricting him.”

The Minstermen lie two points behind Southport, who presently occupy the final play-off place, but boast two games in hand on the visitors and Mills believes tomorrow will provide the perfect match for his team to turn their attention back to the league following last weekend’s FA Trophy semi-final victory over Luton.

Mills said: “There will be a lot of talk about Wembley between now and the Trophy final.

“You try and keep the players away from all that but, when you reach Wembley, there’s a lot that goes with it in terms of people’s families and arranging what we do when we go there.

“It’s difficult to ignore all that but we have got to concentrate on getting back into a play-off position.

“There’s no bigger game than Southport to do that in because we know that if we win we go back into the top five and that’s what we’ve worked so hard for all season.”

Out-of-favour winger Ben Swallow meanwhile, will not be considered for selection against Southport after being disciplined by Mills, who said: “As we speak, Ben Swallow’s not around at the moment. We’ve had an internal situation with him and it’s been sorted out now.”