Gillingham manager Gareth Ainsworth has given an update on the injuries several of his players picked up last weekend.
The win at Barrow saw Cameron Antwi limp off with a knock in the first half and Armani Little with a muscle strain early in the second. Bradley Dack was an unused substitute too after picking up an undisclosed issue.
Speaking about those three, Ainsworth said on Thursday: “All three aren’t as bad as we thought, which is good, really good.
“Definitely a couple of them [will be] involved and we’ll see where we go on Saturday with the other one.
“We’re hoping to get as many fit as we can for this game.
“Obviously, we’re missing Garath [McCleary], who’s back on the grass.
“After the game [on Saturday], without the assessment of the physio, you always think the worst as a manager, but no, we’re pretty good.
“It was a long trip as well, a long time sat on the bus. Now we’re in good place.”
Nelson Khumbeni and Conor Masterson are working their way back from injury and Ainsworth ruled them both out of contention to face Fleetwood this Saturday at Priestfield.
Those injury concerns in the early part of the week were behind Ainsworth’s decision not to include any senior players in the team to play Tonbridge Angels on Tuesday night in the Kent Senior Cup.
He had available the likes of Jonny Williams and Shad Ogie who haven’t featured in weeks.
A team of youth players and young pros battled well but lost the game 4-3.
“There was [a thought of playing some senior players], yes, until we then got a couple of injuries at the weekend” said the Gills boss.
“You look at it and think, ‘Right, we’ve got to be careful here because Monday, Tuesday, we didn’t know whether these boys would be back or not.
“If I’d lost any more on a 4G surface, it probably would have been a risk too far. That’s the reason we didn’t play any.”
Ainsworth was asked about Josh Andrews’ absence last weekend.
The Gills boss went with Ronan Hale and Seb Palmer-Houlden as his chosen strike pair, with Sam Vokes on the bench.
“He took a dead leg against Oldham,” Ainsworth said. “There was a big challenge at the end of the game when a cross went up in the air.
“We [thought] better to be on the cautious side with Josh, rather than rushing him back. He’s been in training all week so Josh is back into the fold now.”
Of the six changes Ainsworth made last weekend, he also switched his keepers.
Jake Turner didn’t have a shot to save at Barrow but looks set to keep his place now ahead of Glenn Morris.
Ainsworth said: “I don’t feel there’s a big amount of difference between the two. I think we’ve got two cracking keepers, I really do.
“I think that Glenn has been superb over the years, but Jake has done very little wrong.
“We got the win as well with a clean sheet, so Jake definitely did his job.”
