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Gillingham are desperately short of numbers ahead of their League 1 trip to Wigan Athletic

Gillingham are facing an injury crisis just a week into the start of their league season.

Manager Steve Evans is hoping the club can bring in a couple of extra men before the weekend trip to Wigan Athletic after being left desperately short of numbers.

Manager Steven Evans and assistant manager Paul Raynor have few players to choose from Picture: Barry Goodwin
Manager Steven Evans and assistant manager Paul Raynor have few players to choose from Picture: Barry Goodwin

Both captain Kyle Dempsey and vice skipper Stuart O’Keefe are out and fellow midfielder Scott Robertson also picked up a knock in the midweek Carabao Cup win.

“If you take the kids out we’ve got 14 players.” said Gills boss Evans.

“I am focussed on who we can go for but I don’t decide whether they can come in or not, that lies at the door of our chairman. He has been supportive but the reality is we went into the cup tie with 18 players, two kids, and we have dropped two since.

“Take two goalkeepers out of it and we have 12-13 players for Wigan and it is tough.

"I dread to think what it would be like going to Wigan with 13 players. I won’t take kids that I am not going to put on the pitch, I am not going to dress my bench up with anyone who is nowhere near it and I don’t think we have anyone anywhere near it.

"We will try and do some bits but what we can do in three days I am not so sure. We are in talks with a couple so we will see how that goes.

“We need to try and do something, we are trying. Chairman Paul Scally will support us if he can but we can’t overpay because we don’t have the money and we have to always remind ourselves of that.”

Evans has been linked with former Celtic winger Calvin Miller, who is currently out of contract, although his main concern now is in the central area.

The Gills boss said: “He is a young man who we spoke to a few weeks ago. We didn’t quite get there with it.

“Calvin is a good player and whether we revisit that, I will speak to the chairman, but he is a different type of player and I probably have someone ahead of him who we hope to bring from the Premier League in a similar position.

“We might have to patch up in different areas but we can’t just patch up with anyone, we need to do it with good players, central midfield players are a hard commodity to find, like we found when we got Kyle Dempsey, everyone wanted him, everyone, the big boys wanted him.

“Credit to the chairman on that but he is going to have to do it again.”

The Gills were interested in Southampton midfielder Tom O’Connor, who impressed last season on loan, but were left waiting on a decision and Evans looked elsewhere. He might consider seeing if the player is now available as he knows the Irishman would fit straight in.

Gillingham lost O’Keefe to a serious leg injury on Tuesday night while an ankle injury looks set to keep Dempsey out for six weeks. Robertson will be touch and go for the weekend after getting a knee in the back.

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