Gillingham manager Mark Bonner is looking towards 2025 to see the best from summer signing Brad Dack.
The playmaker has been limited to just an hour of football so far this season and the 30-year-old looks set to be unavailable for the next four weeks due to a hamstring issue.
Bonner is cool on the situation and has explained the issues that the player is currently having.
The Gills boss said: “He’s got a little bit of an issue in his hamstring so he’s probably going to be four weeks before we can get him back out (training).
“Every time we’ve tried something, it’s not quite worked. It’s just going to take time.
“Being honest, I probably thought all along that 2025 was the year for him and it’s going to be that until hopefully we can really see the best of him and get him going.
“It was always going to be a slow burner, he needs training, he needs time, he needs opportunities to fix certain issues in his body and we need to just work with him on that.
“We just have to accept that he needs time.
“He’s seen a couple of different specialists with some good ideas, people that know him over the past couple of years.
“He’s obviously had a tough couple of years with a number of injuries that has a spin off all the time. If someone’s not training and not playing for a long period it just probably takes time over the initial injury, or surrounding things, that can go wrong.
“I don’t think there was ever going to be a quick return to the team.
“He obviously got on the pitch against Barrow and played 20 minutes in that game, but he’s not close to being Bradley Dack yet, so what we need to do is make sure we put him on the pitch when he’s really ready and we build him up.
“We’re having to take a few steps back now with that issue just to try and build him back up so I think we just have to accept that.
“To me it’s not really a surprise. We went into it knowing that that was probably the scenario and it’s going to take a little bit of time.
“As desperate as everyone might be to see him on the pitch, I want to see him on the pitch when he can help us win and we need to try and get him there. If it takes longer to do it then no problem for me, there’ll be plenty of games in the new year that he can help us win.”
Looking towards the coming weekend, Bonner’s not expecting the likes of Conor Masterson, Aaron Rowe or Josh Andrews to make the squad following their own injury issues and they’re currently assessing an injury that Robbie McKenzie picked up.
He went off last weekend at Crewe.
“We’re not sure on (him) at the moment,” Bonner said, speaking after Thursday training.
“He came off at half-time at the weekend with a little issue in his knee. We’ll see how he shapes up ready for the weekend, and we’ll be a little bit clearer as to what that is and whether he’s available or not, probably tomorrow (Friday).
“Other than that, we expect it to be everybody that was in the squad last week to go in again, and I don’t think there’s anyone else any closer to getting back.
“Obviously, there are some that have been out of training a little bit more, so they’re getting closer, but not ready to contribute yet.”
