A no-nonsense approach to player injuries has led to few absentees this season, believes manager Martin Allen.

The majority of the squad have been fit and available for most of Gillingham’s 16 games so far. And Allen believes the new approach to injuries is paying off.

He said: "Now everybody has to come through me if they are injured; they’re not allowed to see the doctor or speak to him, or to see any consultant.

"Nobody is allowed to book their own scan. Nobody is allowed to do anything and when they come and ask me I say ‘no’ and it’s funny how they get better pretty quick, or much quicker when they are explaining what’s wrong with them to me.

"We don’t really go and see doctors anymore or consultants. I am not that mad that I don’t let them go if there is something dangerously wrong with them, but at £400 a scan, we aren’t going for scans and if you are going for a scan it’s going to be something serious. Half of that stuff is a load of old rubbish anyway."