Mark Bentley joined the Gillingham injury-list before the weekend after breaking his foot.

The fracture, picked up in training, looks set to keep the midfielder on the sidelines for the rest of the month.

Bentley (pictured) has been a regular in the team since the start of the season, with 13 appearances so far.

With Josh Gowling and Conor Essam out on loan, he was the club’s only remaining option to play centre-back, where he has filled in many times and with Matt Lawrence collecting an injury on Saturday, the Gills are struggling in that area.

"We’ll have to go and get some players if we can," said boss Andy Hessenthaler.

"I’m not going to hide behind injuries. We’ve got lots of injured players at the moment. We are here to be tested and tested we are."

The Gills will be without John Nutter (suspension) this weekend after his sending-off on Saturday and this week’s injury victims Lawrence, Bentley and Dennis Oli join a list which includes Simon King, Garry Richards, Danny Jackman, Andy Barcham, Curtis Weston, Mark McCammon and Dean Race.

Gowling, Essam, Luke Rooney and Andrew White are all out on loan.