Gillingham are considering a pre-season training camp in France to blow off the cobwebs.

The players could be back in training at the end of this month if the EFL confirm a September 12 date for a new season - which at the moment is looking the most likely scenario.

Manager Steve Evans is due to check out facilities at Gills’ go-to location of Le Touquet, on the French coast. It will give them a chance to get in top condition having not trained together since mid-March.

Evans said: “I’m going over next week to look at the facilities, a private trip, just to have a recce, to have a look at the conditions of the pitches etcetera and to make sure they are right for us.

“When we get back in we will have a lot of work to do. In terms of fitness they will bit as fit as a butcher’s dog but we have to get them match sharp and make sure the surfaces we are going to play on are conducive to that.

“We have some provisional dates for that, and of course I have got six or seven pre-season games in our head at all levels from the top end of non-league through to the Premier League. They will be behind closed doors I would assume, but you never know. We haven’t got specific dates but we have got specific opposition.”

His trip comes as meeting with potential signings are in full swing, the manager says he has already met 60% of those new faces he wants to bring in, while loan deals have also been lined up.

The manager can’t wait to get his players back out on the training pitch.

“We have all had far too long in the house haven’t we?”

“I am desperate to get out of the house. We have false flowers in a vase and even they are sick of the sight of me. ‘Are you not going to work big man?’ they are probably saying. ‘Get yourself off to work please!’

“I have been in the garden, I have been washing the car every second day and it doesn't need doing. My wife just shakes her head at me.

"I have watched so much footage of the lads we like, we’ve done our homework and planned pre-season meticulously with what we are doing in each of the sessions. In terms of planning we are as good as we can be.”

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