Gillingham manager Mark Bonner had reason to be cheerful at the training ground on Thursday morning.
Bonner’s had to deal with numerous injury issues in his first two months of the season but those appear to be easing.
He’ll still have a handful unavailable for the match against Barrow this weekend but, heading into that game and a busy period ahead, things are looking more promising on the injury front.
“Every single player at this football club was on the grass today (Thursday),” he said.
“I think that’s the first time (since being in charge) that’s happened so that was a celebratory day. It was enjoyable to see everybody out there.
“Obviously, everyone’s at completely different levels, and not everyone was training in the training group, but we know that we’re getting close with quite a few.
“Timmy (Dieng) is training, Dacky’s training, Robbie (McKenzie) is training, Ethan Coleman is training. We hope that some of those, or one or two of those, might be available come the weekend.”
Aaron Rowe, Conor Masterson and Josh Andrews have also been getting closer and Bonner hasn’t had any players report back with issues after their midweek EFL Trophy game.
He said: “Everybody else from Tuesday that either got rested or played the game, came through the game all right so I think we’re getting closer with that.
“There’s a couple that aren’t (in full) training yet. Aaron Rowe, Conor Masterson, Jake Turner. They’re working with Jammer (James Russell, the fitness coach) and Minty (Paul Timson, the physio) at the moment still, but they’re getting closer to joining the group’s training sessions, which is good.
“(The medical team) have been really busy over the last couple of months and that will never change because actually keeping people on the grass. Keeping them fit and looking after them day to day is a big task.
“There’s a lot of players that need that care all the time. Hopefully, we can get a few of those back, but we know that we’ve played one or two in recent weeks where we’re hoping they can get through again.
“We’re always on the edge with a couple at the moment, but hopefully we get to a point where that isn’t the case and we build that robustness and we’re able to get everybody out there.
“We’re certainly not in a clear with a few of them yet. They were out there today, but very early stages still on the grass.”
Bonner will have a big task on his hands if he does get a full complement to choose from.
But he cautioned: “The likely scenario is that by the time some are ready, some won’t be.
“It’s very rare that you get everyone available at the same time fit. That’s fine and when everyone is fit and training, the level of training will go up, the intensity of training will go up, therefore, probably there’ll be one or two that fall away and have an injury during that period.
“We’re not far away from hopefully having more to pick from and certainly in the case of one or two that have been missing the last couple of weeks.
“We always hoped that next week a couple of those might be able to contribute as we get into game four and five of this little period.
“By the end of the Crewe game, we’re 10 games in, and if we could have everyone fit at that point, we’d be really happy.”
