Gillingham playmaker Jonny Williams has been declared fit to face a team he almost joined in the summer.
Williams needed stitches in a facial wound as the Gills beat Charlton in the FA Cup two weeks ago and since then his team-mates have been told to steer clear of him in training to avoid making the injury worse.
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Head coach Stephen Clemence has said the 30-year-old former Welsh international is now good to go this Saturday and is available to play a club who got close to signing him before the Gills jumped in.
Bradford thought they had their man before a call from the Gills led to him checking out of his hotel in Yorkshire and signing on the dotted line at Priestfield on a three-year deal, preferring to join a club closer to his friends and family in Kent.
“He has had the stitches out and he is ready to go and available,” confirmed the Gills boss on Thursday.
“He hasn’t missed any training but he had to be careful he didn’t get another bang on it. It was quite a nasty injury and was a difficult week or so for him but he’s fine.”
Williams had been eating and drinking through a straw since going off injured against Charlton in the first half of that fixture at Priestfield.
Clemence – linked to the Bradford management vacancy himself before joining the Gills – now has the luxury of a near fully-fit squad ahead of a busy schedule.
With six games in 22 days, starting at home to Bradford tomorrow, Clemence has a 22-man senior squad to select from.
He said: “We’re nearly at full strength heading into the weekend, which is a good thing.
“There will be some difficult decisions to make over the weekend, that is the worst part about the job when you have to let people down but also from my point of view it is the best thing because I want as many players as possible to pick from.
“I have certainly got a lot of good players down in that dressing room and I have no hesitation in playing any of them.
“It is great. It does give you problems and you have to have difficult conversations with people, all players want to player football, the modern game now is so quick and fast, players do understand that there might be a little bit of rotation, they always feel they have an opportunity to play and that is what they should be feeling, I hope they are feeling that.
“I have used most of them already since I have been here, barring the ones who have been injured, and it’s good to have them all available.”
Clemence said two of his squad missed training this week but there’s a chance even they could be involved today (Friday) and be available for selection at the weekend.
Ethan Coleman had been one player who was struggling following his early exit in the FA Cup game against Charlton a fortnight ago.
The Gills haven’t played since beating League 1 Charlton in the FA Cup a fortnight ago – last Saturday’s game at Barrow was postponed – and Clemence must decide whether he wants to stick with the same team that performed so well that day.
He’s not afraid to changing a winning team if necessary.
“I am not against rotation,” he said. “You have to look at a lot of things that come into it. We have a sports science department that flag up a lot of different things, players are monitored all the time now, there’s a satellite watching them in the sky, seeing how they move and they have their heart rates monitored all the time. Red markers can be flagged if players are starting to show fatigue.
“I get all the information given to me and I have to make the decision. I don’t go off a computer, I go off what I see with my eye but we have lots of information now.
“If we have to make changes for someone that is rested to come in and give the team more energy I wouldn’t be afraid of doing that if the team had won the last match.”
Weekend visitors Bradford, under recently appointed manager Graham Alexander, have won back to back games in League 2 but also had sat it out last Saturday because of a waterlogged pitch.
Clemence said: “Bradford have some very good players, a play-off team last year, a big football club, well supported and it will be a very tough test.
“Graham has gone in there and the results have picked up recently. We will be fully prepared to take them on and we will be expecting a tough game.”
