GILLINGHAM’S mounting injury problems are lurching towards a full-blown crisis only days before the start of the new season.

Already resigned to being without Marlon King, Rod Wallace and Kevin James, player-manager Andy Hessenthaler has been dealt another devastating blow with the news that skipper Paul Smith will be out for longer than was first thought.

The midfielder, whom Hessenthaler admits is the first name on his team sheet, had been confident of being fit in time for the club’s first home game against Derby on August 16.

Now he is reeling from the shock of learning that he has torn a medial ligament and been ordered to rest for three weeks. A distraught Smith described the news as “one hell of a setback".

He believed he was nearing full fitness after tearing a cartilage in last season’s final home game against Crystal Palace.

Following inflammation of the knee, he underwent a scan and learned that there was a tear in a medial ligament.

“Don’t ask me when I expect to be back,” he said. “What I do know is that I face the prospect of three weeks of doing nothing which means all the fitness I’ve built up will be lost.

“That leaves me seven to eight weeks away from full fitness. The news has knocked me for six”

With Tommy Johnson also likely to miss the start of the season with a groin strain and Mamady Sidibe troubled by a thigh injury, Hessenthaler’s team plans for the opening game against Sheffield United at Bramall Lane are in disarray.

After the 5-1 win at Gravesend, the Gills boss remarked that while he had a picture in his mind of his first selection, it was not clear. Now it is thoroughly blurred.