Prolific Herne Bay striker Stuart King is at the centre of a transfer battle after a dramatic week at Winch’s Field.

King, who is under contract at Herne Bay, was given permission by manager Simon Halsey to train at Folkestone Invicta but fell awkwardly at Cheriton Road and is now set to miss a month of action.

However, King has gone to ground and has eluded the calls of chairman John Bathurst and his Bay future is now in the balance.

Mr Bathurst said: "Apparently Stuart is injured – he hasn’t bothered to tell me. I’ve made calls and left a message but he hasn’t got back to me.

"Simon Halsey gave him permission to train at Folkestone. Folkestone should have given seven days’ notice but I’m not overly worried about that as I have a good relationship with the people down there but now I hear he’s fractured his collarbone.

"We paid a considerable amount of money to buy him out of a contract at Ramsgate two years ago and in the summer we offered him an extension which he didn’t sign, which he is well in his right to do.

"We told because he’s under 24 we’d seek compensation if he went elsewhere and he knew that but no-one came in for him over the summer and now he’s on a week-by-week contract.

"He can go to Folkestone but we’d need to agree a price. I want £4,000 but they were thinking £1,000, so there’s a big difference there. When we bought him out of the contract at Ramsgate, they wanted a 25 per cent sell-on fee too, which we agreed to, so there would be money going to them if he did go."