Working around a faulty 10Gig SFP+ port on a 2960X - Is EtherChannel viable?

Sorry in advance for the amateur question, but here goes. I have a Cisco Catalyst 2960X-48FPD-L where one of the 10Gig SFP+ ports has gone bad after a power outage - it won't recognize any transceiver inserted into the port even after multiple swaps with known good ones (and the fiber tests fine), so it's definitely the port itself. Unfortunately that port is what linked this switch to another 2960X-48FPD-L on the other end of the building (and the second 10Gig interface on the switch links it back to our MDF, so I can't use that one). The ideal solution is "replace the switch", which doesn't make financial sense as we're scheduled to pull and replace all of these in a few months anyway. The fiber run is the only thing currently connecting those two physically distant switches together.

As a stopgap measure I found a mothballed 2960X-48FPD-L where half the Ethernet ports don't work (but the SFP+ ones do); I plugged the transceiver into that one and it works fine, but now I need the least goofy way to trunk it back to the switch with the bad SFP+ using the remaining functional Ethernet ports. Right now it's connected via a single sad Ethernet cable, which works as a temporary solution but will likely run into bandwidth issues seeing as there's a reason these were specced for 10Gig speeds in the first place.

Would this be a workable scenario for a temporary EtherChannel setup? Could I set aside (up to) 8 1Gig Ethernet ports on both switches and at least in theory get something between the current flimsy 1Gig and the original 10Gig connection between the two, or am I completely on the wrong path here and about to do something silly? I do realize that this switch will likely end up with more bad ports down the line, but I just need to keep the boat afloat until the new gear comes in.

Thank you in advance and apologies if the terminology here is off, I'm by no means an expert in this stuff but I'm learning!