NATHAN Clarke has returned to AFC Sudbury.

Clarke has returned to the MEL Group Stadium on loan until the end of the season.

He won both the club’s Players’ Player of the Year and the Supporters’ Player of the Year awards at the end of the 2011/12 season, after leaving in acrimonious circumstances the previous campaign following a poor disciplinary record.

However, Clarke left to join fellow Ryman League Division One North side Needham Market in the summer following a disagreement which centred around the defender undergoing an immediate private hernia operation, costing him more than £2,000, while not being offered a better pay packet.

Clarke, who signed a two-year contract at Bloomfields in the summer, has struggled to reproduce his best form this season and when Needham decided to cut their wage bill he was loaned out on a dual registration to Thurlow Nunn League Premier Division side Walsham-le-Willows.

Now that Walsham, who are one of Clarke’s former clubs, have slipped out of contention to win the title, they have released him to return to AFC Sudbury.

In his previous spells with the club Clarke made 77 appearances and scored 12 goals and AFC Sudbury stand-in manager Michael Shinn said: “I’m extremely pleased to have him on board, he will strengthen our defence and add some experience to it.

“He will go straight into the squad for our away game against Romford on Wednesday.”

Mark Morsley, who has just taken over as manager of Needham Market in the wake of Danny Laws’ departure, said: ““We felt it was best for him to go to Sudbury to play Ryman League football and we will sit down and have a chat about his future at the end of the season.”