Gillingham manager Mark Stimson is facing an injury nightmare with just over a week to go before the start of their League 1 season.

Simon King became the latest player to be sidelined after suffering an ankle injury in the 3-2 pre-season win at Bromley on Tuesday.

King said: "I had a scan on Wednesday and am waiting on the results to find out how long I’ll be out for."

He joins Dennis Oli and Stuart Lewis, who are now likely to miss the season opener against Swindon on Saturday, August 8.

Stimson is also sweating on the fitness of Adam Miller, who is recovering from his own ankle problems, while young striker Andy Pugh missed Tuesday’s match with a groin injury.

Gillingham’s final first team pre-season match takes place against Championship side Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park on Sunday (kick-off 2pm) and Stimson can’t wait to get the match out of the way.

Stimson said: "I was only saying before the Bromley game to (first team coach) Mark Robson that I’ve never had so many injuries in pre-season.

"It’s not because of strains and we haven’t over-worked the boys. It’s just when you get into competitive matches sometimes you don’t get the rub of the green or the tackles go in and they have been more harmful this year.

"It’s been a crazy one so far and fingers crossed we don’t get any more, because if we do, we’re going to be very light.

"We picked up another bad injury on Tuesday and it’s a nightmare because Simon King is a big player for us.

"Everyone could see how important he was to the team last year and he is going to be massive to us this year.

"We seem to be picking up these kinds of injuries in every game we play.

"We’ve hit a bad spell and the last three games we’ve picked up an injury in every game and a nasty one, not one you can get over in two or three days, more like two or three weeks or maybe longer.

"We’ve just got one more game now. Most of the boys are in decent shape and we’re nearly ready, it’s just these injuries we keep picking up. It’s one step forward, four steps back."