Goalkeeper Jake Turner could make a timely return for Gillingham this weekend.
Turner’s back in training, after recovering from an ankle injury that has kept him out since late August, and he’ll be looking to prove his fitness ahead of the match at Bradford City this Saturday.
Glenn Morris picked up a hamstring strain last weekend in the home defeat against Accrington Stanley – forcing him off and handing a first league appearance at Gillingham for loan keeper Luca Ashby-Hammond.
As of Thursday, Morris still hadn’t returned to training on the grass, and isn’t expected to be available this weekend, allowing Turner to stake his claim for the goalkeeper jersey once again.
Manager Mark Bonner, speaking after training on Thursday, gave fans an update on where things stand in the goalkeeping department, fitness-wise.
“Won’t don’t think it’s too bad,” said Bonner, of Morris’ injury.
“He came off and I literally didn’t see him until yesterday (Wednesday). That might have been the first time I’ve seen him all week, which is crazy. It’s been a busy week.
“But we’ve seen him. He’s working hard with the fitness guys and hopefully we can get him out on the grass soon. But Saturday might come a bit too early.
“We’ll see where the others are at. Jake’s training. Luca’s training.
“Obviously Jake’s only just returned to training so it might be a bit soon for him but Luca came on (against Accrington) and he did well. We’ll see where we are tomorrow (Friday) with both of them and make a call on that.
Young goalkeeper Taite Holtam has this week gone out on loan to Isthmian South East strugglers Phoenix Sports, who face Herne Bay this Saturday. He was Steve Lovell’s Herne Bay earlier this season. The 19-year-old has agreed a month-long loan.
Ashby-Hammond, 23, joined the Gills on loan from Fulham when Turner picked up his injury. He’s since been understudy to Morris, who only recently won the September League 2 player-of-the-month award.
Prior to the weekend, the loan goalie had been limited to EFL Trophy action, appearing in home defeats against Peterborough United and Crystal Palace u21s.
Last season he had loan spells at Crawley and Notts County, playing 11 games for each side, and had a full season at National League Aldershot he year before that.
Bonner’s happy to select him as a starter this weekend if needed.
The Gills boss said: “He’s played a good number of games for Notts last year in the league. He’s not played so much for us but he trains well.
“It isn’t easy for a goalkeeper going on mid-game, so that was obviously a tough challenge for him (last weekend), but he took it well and I have no doubts putting him on the pitch at all.”
Gillingham will have defender Conor Masterson back available for the weekend trip to Bradford but the manager has said it’s “way too soon” for both Aaron Rowe and Josh Andrews to get involved yet.
The manager has said he’s awaiting news on several players who picked up issues last weekend.
He said: “We’ve got some late calls to make on quite a few because we’re a little bit up in the air with one or two that have got some issues out of Saturday’s game, that hasn’t seen them return.
“Two returned (on Thursday), first session back and two or three haven’t been back out yet.
“We had some issues last weekend which one or two carried through the game with and came out of the game a little bit worse off with.
“We’ll see where we are (on Friday) with one or two to make up the squad.”
