Gillingham manager Gareth Ainsworth has explained why Bradley Dack was taken off at the weekend.
Dack was a key player as the Gills went 2-0 up against Barrow in the opening half, continuing his good recent form for the team, but Ainsworth admitted he had to take him off midway through the second half.
“Bradley took a whack, so he had to come off,” said the Gills boss.
The Gills finished the game with 10 men after midfielder Nelson Khumbeni – Dack’s replacement – went down injured late on. All of the permitted substitutions had already been used as he went off in some discomfort.
“I think he’s done his shoulder,” said Ainsworth, after the weekend 2-2 draw against Barrow.
“That could be a nasty one for Nelson.
“But he’s young enough to get over that and he’ll be back soon stronger.”
Both players will have their injuries assessed this week.
Garath McCleary was another who impressed early on in the game but was replaced by Seb Palmer-Houlden.
On his substitutions, Ainsworth admitted: “I don’t think they made good impacts. I don’t think they changed much.”
The Gills boss, on his team overall, added: “They’ve given everything. I’ll take some responsibility. My changes, my tactics, I’ll take some responsibility.
“Give it me. But I’m sure one or two of the boys will hold their hand up and say, ‘look, I need to be better in certain areas, certain times.”
Ainsworth had been looking towards the Christmas period to get numbers back and there are some closing in on a return.
Speaking on Saturday, he said: “Johnny Smith looks like he’ll be involved next week (at Fleetwood), which is great.
“I think Conor (Masterson) is very close. The two big guys (Sam Vokes and Josh Andrews) are close.
“We’re slowly getting them back for that Christmas period, which looks very tough.
“I’m going to need my total squad for that.”
The Gills have also been without experienced keeper Glenn Morris since late October.
Loan winger Smith would be a welcome addition after barely featuring this season. His solo strike against Newport in September showed a glimpse of what he can offer.
Ainsworth’s side have won just once in their last 11 games and having a full squad to choose from could help turn the form around.
“We’ve got some big players in there that we’re missing,” said the manager.
“Whether that would have made the difference (on Saturday) I don’t know.
“I do feel in the early part of the season, we tended to be able to put some players on that either slowed the game up or kept the ball better for us.”
With Vokes and Andrews missing, the Gills haven’t had the big striker upfront that Ainsworth likes in his teams, but he isn’t using that as an excuse.
He said: “I shouldn’t have to wait and stick a big man on for us to make the ball stick.
“We should be better, but it’s not the forwards who aren’t making the ball stick. It’s the type of ball we’re giving them. It’s everything. It’s not just a certain person.
“It seemed to be a lot (on Saturday), whether it was the wrong pass, the wrong kind of kick, the wrong position, the space we were giving them.
“It was a lot of stuff, so it’s never ever going to be one person, two people, ever, ever.
“We may have got beat with the centre forwards on the pitch, who knows, but looking in hindsight we didn’t make that ball stick when it came and Barrow were on the ascendancy.
“We needed it to stick up top and it didn’t really.”
