'Currently I am jobless' - Taylor waits on Colchester deal
Lyle Taylor is a Montserrat international
- Published
One year ago Lyle Taylor was contemplating the end of his playing career but, fast forward 12 months and he is keen to continue a journey which has brought him more than 150 goals.
The problem for the 35-year-old forward is he is currently without a club, with a new deal at Colchester United yet to materialise after 10 goals in 27 League Two starts last season saw him finish as the club's top scorer.
A season-ending calf muscle injury sustained in April has left Taylor working hard over the summer to regain his fitness and be ready for the new campaign.
"Currently I am jobless - as it stands I am working on getting better," Taylor told the BBC's EFL podcast 72+.
"I am working on not being jobless in the very near future."
Prolific spells at AFC Wimbledon and Charlton Athletic earned him a move to Nottingham Forest in 2020 for a three-year spell which included a loan at Birmingham City.
But Taylor then found a permanent home hard to come by as he started the 2023-24 season searching for a job before joining Wycombe on a short-term deal and then moving to Cambridge United until the end of the campaign.
"I was in a position a year ago looking at it and thinking 'if I don't enjoy this season then I'm probably going to call it a day'," he said.
"Fast forward a year to where we are now and I want to carry on playing."
That enjoyment came from a season under Danny and Nicky Cowley at Colchester, a club who were looking to recover from four years at the wrong end of League Two.
Taylor featured in 40 games across all competitions, scoring 13 goals as the U's finished 10th, only three points short of the play-offs.
But the calf injury picked up in a 2-0 win over Newport brought an early end to his season and since then he has been working his way back to fitness while also trying to sort out his future.
"I've been trying since December to stay at Colchester but as it stands it's still not done and I don't know where I'm at," he told 72+.
Colchester start the new League Two season at home to Tranmere on Saturday, 2 August.