East Grinstead have added South Africa international Gareth Carr to their ranks ahead of the new season.

The 25-year-old from Durban joins fellow internationals Niall Stott (Scotland and Great Britain) and Rick Gay (Wales) as new arrivals at Saint Hill.

Defender Carr will help fill the void left by the departure of Germany’s Martin Haener at the end of last season.

Haener was a key figure as Grinstead won their first ever national league crown but Grinstead believe they have ample defensive cover in the signings of Carr and Gay.

Short corner specialist Carr has won 42 Test caps for South Africa, scoring 25 goals.

Grinstead have been in negotiations with him for a month and are delighted to finally sign him.

Player-coach Mark Pearn said: “We chatted to Gareth a few weeks ago. He has been away with South Africa. We were pleased to get him here on Thursday and get him involved with pre-season.

“He is going to be as fit as any of us as he has been training and playing all summer. From that side of things, no problem at all. We need to get him integrated into the team.

“He brings a very strong presence at the back, he is a fantastic distributor of the ball and a penalty corner expert. Clearly we needed to replace Martin who was fantastic for us last year so we are looking for Gareth to fill a couple of roles for us.”