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Exeter City have signed Fleetwood Town centre-back Sam Stubbs.

The 22-year-old has joined on a free transfer and agreed a two-and-a-half-year deal at St James Park.

The former Middlesbrough youngster moved to Fleetwood in September after having loan spells at Notts County, Hamilton and Dutch side ADO Den Haag.

Stubbs' move was delayed after he contracted Covid-19 and was forced to self-isolate having watched Exeter's FA Cup loss to Sheffield Wednesday.

"He's a player we've followed for a number of seasons now, I got a fantastic reference from George Friend, who was at Middlesbrough when Sam was a young lad," Exeter City manager Matt Taylor told Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio Devon.

"He's an old-school centre-half and you don't get many of those profiles within a young body.

"He's a player we're looking to build a team around - we're going to have to be patient, because of the Covid issue to start with and the fact that he had a knee operation midway through December to clear out a bit of cartilage damage.

"That suggests he won't be coming in to play straight away, but I'm sure we'll see his value in the next month or so."

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