Gillingham manager Mark Bonner is excited to have winger Aaron Rowe back available.

The 24-year-old hasn’t played since the end of August but returned to the squad at the weekend as an unused substitute against Salford City.

Bonner decided against introducing him off the bench last weekend, but with Joe Gbode set to be unavailable this Saturday, there’s a place out wide up for grabs when the Gills head to MK Dons.

Explaining why he didn’t play Rowe against Salford, opting to play Bradley Dack instead, Bonner said: “We had so many ideas of where we might go. I was quite keen to get him involved at some point.

“In those last few moments (we went with) a bit of experience from Dacky, and just for his own head, to get out on the pitch can help.

“With a few changes we made earlier on, our team got smaller and you know that the threat of set-plays might come later in the game.

“We needed to go Dack. We needed to go Shad, to make sure we were big, to make sure that we had a bit of experience to defend our box if those moments came. It was a real testing game for those sorts of things.

“Joe won't be available so Azza can have a good week going into it and I'd expect to see him play a part (this weekend), which is absolutely brilliant for us and the type of game it will be next week, he'll be a big player for us.

“We've waited a long time to see him back in the squad. I'm a bit disappointed I didn't get to see him on the pitch and it was my choice not to but I'm excited by him and I think he can make a nice difference to the team.”

Gbode’s expected to miss out this weekend due to concussion rules. He suffered a blow to the head and was replaced in the first half against Salford.

It was Dack’s first appearance since the end of September and second off the bench in the league since making his return to the Gills in the summer. He came on in the 89th-minute for Elliott Nevitt.

Josh Andrews, meanwhile, made his first league start under Bonner and lasted 65 minutes. He’s another player working his way back up to full fitness after a long time out injured.

“I loved what he gave us,” said Bonner. “We'll need to get everybody right going into next weekend and we've got a bit of a squad to pick from, which is nice.

“Bigger minutes for him. Another good moment for him and we have to see how he copes with that.”