Exciting forward Jorge Hurtado has had knee surgery and there’s hope he could still feature again for Gillingham before the end of the season.

It was feared that the Watford loanee, who lit up Priestfield on his last appearance off the bench against Swindon Town, would be out for the season after suffering cruciate knee damage in that fixture.

More: Gills boss on free agents

Hurtado, 20, has been in Madrid for surgery and the South American will be working hard to try and get back before the season ends.

The regular League 2 season finishes on April 27 although there could be three more games after that if the Gills get into the play-offs. The final for that this year is on Sunday, May 19.

Head coach Stephen Clemence said: “Jorge has had his operation, he’s in Madrid, he is not 100% ruled out for the rest of the season, that was my understanding.

“When they went inside the knee it wasn’t probably as bad as they first thought and that means the recovery time will be less.

“I haven’t got a time frame on it but that was the positive news that I got. I am hoping that’s the case.

“He still hopes he can be back and that would be great for everybody if that’s the case but we will have to assess that week by week.

“I don’t want to get everyone’s hopes up either, because when someone has an operation at this stage you don’t tend to not see them again (in the season), but I know the boy was loving it here and I how enthusiastic he is.

“I know he will be doing his best to try and get back and contribute to us before the end of the season and if that’s the case that would be great for everyone, but it’s important he gets back healthy, that’s the main thing.”

Hurtado joined the Gills at the end of the January transfer window and made three substitute appearances.