Gillingham are close to having most of their injured players back available and an intensive week away could ensure Bradley Dack’s one of those.
Dack’s only played 15 minutes of league football for the Gills since his summer return as he’s struggled to get fit. He’s been training on the grass at Beechings Cross over the last few days but will hope to step up his work further when he spends a week at St George’s Park.
The English Football Association’s national football centre will provide Dack, 30, a top environment under specialist supervision as he looks to put himself in shape to help Gillingham’s promotion push in League 2 this season.
He’s hoping to enjoy the latter stages of his career having struggled with injuries in recent years, having twice suffered anterior cruciate ligament injuries, once in each knee.
Gills boss Mark Bonner welcomed the news, saying: “He’s going for a week of intensive work there, which is excellent. It’s a bit of a provision that the PFA provide for long-term injured players.
“He can go there and work with amazing facilities, almost one-to-one for a week, so that will be great.
“Hopefully off the back of that week, we can start to really get him into training.”
Bonner expects to have Ethan Coleman back this weekend for the visit of league leaders Port Vale. The midfielder missed the FA Cup game last Saturday with a knee injury.
Others aren’t going to be too far behind. The Gills could have a free weekend coming up, as the Walsall game scheduled for November 16 may well be postponed due to international call-ups for the West Midlands side.
Their goalkeeper Tommy Simkin is an England under-20 stopper while they have a couple of players who represent Montserrat and another who plays for Guyana.
Bonner said: “I think over the next few weeks we’ll see a nice transformation in who’s available. So that’s good.
“We had a 20-man squad last weekend. Ethan Coleman has trained all week, so he’s available, and everybody else from that squad is available.”
Robbie McKenzie (knee) had an injection on Monday which the club will hope accelerates his recovery.
“We hope to get him on the grass next week,” said the manager.
He could be available for the home game against Harrogate on Saturday, November 23.
Bonner added: “Elliot Nevitt and Aaron Rowe have been out on the grass all week with (the fitness coach).
“We hope to get them into training next week. Again probably Harrogate. George Lapslie has been out doing exactly the same this week. He should be back in full training next week.
“Hopefully next week we’ll start to see a few of them on the grass again and the week after we start to really build them up and hope to have a number of those available for Harrogate ,or soon after.
“Fingers crossed for that one. Harrogate is actually my birthday so I could have 25 players to pick from for my birthday. That would be a real nice gift. We’ll see whether or not that is the outcome.”
The Gills have a blank weekend after the Harrogate game as it’s FA Cup round two weekend. Bonner’s side were beaten 2-0 by Blackpool last weekend in the opening round.
Bonner said: “This month is a little bit quieter and a little bit lighter for games. We still don’t know on the Walsall game yet but there’s a chance that could be off for international duty.
“It could end up being quite a quiet month for games, which right now for us is probably really well timed.
“It just gives those boys a bit longer to get themselves fit and available for us. And then you’ve got other boys like Armani (Little) that’s come back into the team. Euan (Williams) has started playing a bit more.
“Wakey (Jacob Wakeling) played last week. Ethan Coleman is still trying to catch up really on where he’s been. Timmy (Dieng) missed quite a bit and then has had a real big period of play and the same with Connor (Masterson).
“Having a few weeks to just work their way into games will definitely help us. You hope it helps you instantly. If it doesn’t help us instantly it will definitely pay us back and help us over the busy December, January period I’m sure.”
