Gillingham are playing it safe with newcomer Sam Vokes as he continues to recover from an injury he sustained at the end of last season.
Vokes suffered a bad arm break shortly after coming off the bench in Wycombe’s final game of the regular League 1 season at Stockport County, landing awkwardly after an aerial duel.
It put him out of Wycombe’s play-off campaign and Gills boss Gareth Ainsworth has said he’ll also have to sit out much of the pre-season action.
Experienced striker Vokes joined the Gills after being released by Wycombe at the end of last season.
He’s one of seven players that Ainsworth says they’re having to treat with caution ahead of the first pre-season match at Dover tonight (Tuesday).
Ainsworth said: “There are certain players who know their bodies, certain players who need to be 100% and some who will play 50%. We are working these things out.
“Sam Vokes broke his arm on the last game of the season and he was 12 weeks non-contact so he’s not going to feature (at Dover).
“He will probably go right up until the end of pre-season before he can start to really put himself about.
“People will ask why isn’t this player or that player playing but we have it all in hand.
“We’re being careful with Elliot Nevitt, because he came off injured on the last game of the season, and people went into the summer with a couple of knocks.
“But the likes of Conor (Masterson), Bradley (Dack), Sam Gale and Shad Ogie, they are doing fine in pre-season at the moment. Joe Gbode has come back looking a million dollars and we have Seb Palmer-Houlden upfront who excites me.
“We will certainly have our fare share of pedigree players out there (at Dover) as well as some of our young players and it’s their time to shine. If I can’t look at them now then when can I?”
Dover will provide a good first test for Ainsworth’s team, a side buoyed by promotion back to National South last season.
For the Gills, players like goalkeeper Jake Turner, Marcus Wyllie and others who didn’t feature much last season will be given another chance.
“It’s great to see Jake Turner back in the building after his loan spell,” said the manager.
“I am sure the fans are going to be interested to see who features under me, a different manager, a different way of playing, different mentality, different culture.
“Who says these names can’t feature. It’s up to them to go out there and show me what they can do.
“We’ve got some tough tests coming up and I’m looking forward to seeing what we can do.
“We have one or two knocks, one or two precautions, one or two we don’t want to put in the first game.
“We’ll have some first year pros that I want to have a look at. They will get a run out but there will be a lot of familiar faces.
“We are probably carrying seven precautions where we won’t take a risk and they will feature in the later games.
“We’ll take two teams and hopefully be competitive against Dover because they had a hell of a season last year and got promoted. We are expecting a tough test.
“It will be a good game, but it is the first one, I don’t want anyone getting carried away with the result, whether it’s good or bad. August is the important month to get stuck into.”
