More senior players could be available this week as Gillingham prepare for a trip to Southampton.
The Gills are taking a cautious approach over the senior players recovering from injuries, with six of them still missing at the weekend.
Central defender Andy Smith had his first outing after being one of seven absent for the pre-season opener at Dover last Tuesday.
Jonny Williams, Elliott Nevitt and Nelson Khumbeni are hoping to be involved soon, and next up for the Gills is a behind-closed-doors game against Championship side Southampton.
Looking ahead to that challenge, manager Gareth Ainsworth said: “It will be a great game for our boys to go and see the level of Southampton after just being relegated from the Premier League.
“They have a new manager (Will Still) and I think it’s going to be more of a training game. It’s not your 90 minutes. I think we’re going to try and get as many minutes into both halves as we can, but we’re not sure exactly how that’s going to run yet.
“The next big one for us is Luton next Saturday (at Priestfield) and we’re looking forward to that one.”
The Gills boss didn’t report any injury issues when speaking after the goalless draw with Reading on Saturday.
There was a moment midway through the first half when Bradley Dack went down under a challenge but it appeared to be nothing more than a bang to the thigh.
“He just wanted to breather didn’t he?!” joked the Gills boss.
“He’s all right. He just got a deadleg.
“I think the intensity of the game was quite good for a pre-season friendly.
“I thought Dacky got really stuck in, got a lot of the ball and he’s going be a leader for us throughout the season as much as a good player.”
Of the players missing, Ainsworth said: “I think Elliott Nevitt and Nelson (Kumbeni) will be close, and Jonny Williams, definitely all three of them will be very soon back into the squad and the team.”
Sam Vokes, Aaron Rowe and Euan Williams are the other senior players out. Young defender Logan Dobbs is also nursing an injury.
“We knew when we signed Sam Vokes him, he was 12 weeks out with a broken arm in the last game of the season,” said Ainsworth.
“Euan Williams took an upper body whack (in training), which we’ve got to be careful with. We don’t want to risk him at the moment.
“Aaron Rowe came back (in pre-season) with a little muscle injury that we’ve got to be careful with. Aaron’s a very explosive player and it’s disappointing because he finished the season so well.
“We can’t overload Aaron, so games aren’t for Aaron yet. Training, okay, and he thinks he’s going to be back on the grass (this) week, but games are just a little bit far off for Aaron yet.”
Ainsworth was delighted to have summer signing Smith back involved. He ended last season injured while on loan from Hull City and has returned on a permanent deal.
Reacting to his first outing since returning, Ainsworth said: “Andy showed he’s a really assured passer of the ball, a good defender but he can play. Having him back is key.
“At times in that second half, we could have got the ball down a little bit more and played but the pitch wasn’t conducive to that, really.
“It’s very sticky and we needed a bit more water on it but as soon as you put water on it, it evaporates. You’ve got to feel for the groundsman.”
