Tomas Egert and Tom Brewitt get extra time to shine at Walsall

The duo were among a group of five trialists who were given a chance to impress in the Saddlers friendly victory over Ajax last week. They were joined by fellow defenders Christian Mbulu and Adam Mitchell as well as Cypriot forward Michalis Giorkatzis.

But speaking at a Meet the Manager event held at the Banks’s Stadium on Tuesday, boss Dean Keates revealed only two trialists were invited to join up with the team for training this week.

And the Express & Star understands Egert and Brewitt are the players that have been kept on.

Earlier this week it was revealed Burton would not be offering Egert a new deal despite boss Nigel Clough being keen to keep him at the Pirelli Stadium.

The 23-year-old, who is from the Czech Republic, impressed in three Championship outings for the Brewers last season.

He has also featured in friendlies for Clough’s side this summer.

But fellow centre-backs Jake Buxton, Kyle McFadzean and Ben Turner are all established at the Pirelli.

The Brewers can also call on Kyle McFadzean and Damien McCrory.

And Clough said that means they haven’t got the budget to keep Egert on.

“In an ideal world, you would love to be able to take him (Egert) as cover, but that’s what he’d be,” Clough said.

“He wants to be in a starting line-up as well, but we just couldn’t manage to fit him into the budget with those five defenders that we’ve got.

“We’ve looked at him at right-back and centre-half, but we don’t feel he’s better than those five, so that’s what we are going with.”

Asked if he expected the former Spartak Trnava defender to sign for another League One club for the upcoming season, Clough said: “I think there’s every chance he will, yes.”

Both Egert and Brewitt can play at right-back and centre-back – with Brewitt impressing in that position in the win over Ajax.

The former Liverpool youngster is a free agent after opting to leave Middlesbrough to go in search of first-team football.

Keates is in need of a right-back to provide competition for Nicky Devlin after Kory Roberts suffered a double leg break in friendly clash with Stoke.