LEAGUE Two side Luton Town are close to agreeing a deal with former Sunderland youth captain Lewis Gibbons, who recently completed a two-year ban for drugs.

Gibbons was released by the Black Cats after testing positive for a metabolite of cocaine and cannabis while he was a part of the club’s academy set-up in September 2012.

His scholarship contract at the Academy of Light was withdrawn, and at the time, academy director Ged McNamee said: “Lewis not only let our club down, he let himself and his team-mates down massively.”

The 20-year-old recently completed his two-year suspension, and returned to football with Northern League club Durham City last month.

He was offered a one-week trial with Luton after making four appearances for Durham, and Hatters boss John Still has confirmed the club are close to agreeing a permanent contract.

“He’s a young boy, but someone that I know well, and he was very highly-rated as a young man at Sunderland,” said Still. “Like lots of young men, he did something really stupid.

“Well, we’ve all done stupid things, but for two years the boy has done nothing but training and waiting to see if he can get back into the game.”