Gillingham boss Mark Stimson admits he’s unlikely to punish striker Mark McCammon for his recent open criticism of the way he has been handled.

McCammon, pictured, has not featured for the Gills since the FA Cup defeat at Accrington and recently had his name circulated to League 1 clubs.

There has been some interest in the big striker but Stimson believes location could be an issue.

Stimson said: "I asked if he did the statement because there were some bits in it I thought ‘that can’t be Mark talking’ and he did say it was his. I picked up the point about training with the youth team and I couldn’t see a problem with it because the team were travelling up to Hartlepool on Tuesday.

"The youth team were training and so was Chris Palmer, Luis Cumbers and Danny Jackman – so why can’t Mark McCammon train?

"He just said to me that he had never trained with the youth team before in his career and he had worked for great managers. He thought it was disrespectful.

"We’ll leave it now because it’s something small and it could be blown out of proportion.

"Mark wants to play football and he has said he wants to play in League 1. There is a possibility that there is one interested, but after talking to Mark there might be a location problem."