Gillingham boss Steve Evans is hoping their cautious approach to injuries pays off for the weekend.

Evans left several players at home when they played Norwich City on Tuesday night and have six players who are currently fighting to be fit for the weekend.

Captain Kyle Dempsey, Alex MacDonald and Ben Reeves were left out at Carrow Road while John Akinde (ankle) limped off shortly after being introduced at the break. Robbie McKenzie has missed all of their pre-season games while Ryan Jackson has yet to complete 90 minutes.

Defenders David Tutonda and Max Ehmer are among those coming back from time off with Covid. It’s certainly not ideal preparation for a season that kicks off this Saturday at home to Lincoln City.

Evans is hoping for the best though, saying: “I think Ben Reeves and Kyle Dempsey have a real chance, it was about precaution (on Tuesday night). Vadaine Oliver and Olly Lee were taken off at half-time to make sure they are fresh and ready if selected.

“We hope to have those players available and it will be about whether they train Thursday/Friday. They will be in the treatment room. As soon as we learned they had little niggles (ahead of Tuesday) we said ‘no’, they were not involved.

“As a manager you have to listen to the medical team, they are the experts. I am hopeful we will have some of them available. We need our better players.”

Evans is hoping to bring in some additions before the weekend and they remain light upfront. Akinde has been feeling his ankle but again, the club were playing it safe.

“We said to all the players 'if you feel anything let us know' and we would take them off,” said the manager.

“I am expecting some of them to train on Friday. We have to pick a team, first and foremost to be competitive. Does it affect us when we miss Dempsey, Jackson, McKenzie and MacDonald? Of course it does. The likes of Dempsey and Reeves have been doing extra and in the last few days it has taken its toll a bit.”

The Covid break mid pre-season meant the Gills have had to cram in extra sessions to help prepare the players.

Evans was still hoping for additions. Ideally he wanted them in by Wednesday (yesterday) and he met chairman Paul Scally to see what options they had. A handful of trialists will be keen for answers, including newcomer Dan Crowley who impressed at Norwich.

Evans said of the attacking midfielder: “He is a proper player, whether we can do a deal with him i am not sure. I thought (Mustapha) Carayol was good and carried a real threat.”

Rangers trialist Ciraran Dickson, meanwhile, has been let go and didn't feature on Tuesday.

Speaking about their hopes of making signings, Evans added: “It is not all about Saturday, the window doesn’t shut until the end of the month but we need to do some business and the chairman is aware of it.

“We will try and make it happen but we need to bring players in who can make a difference.

“We have signed some good players and we can be competitive. We lost 5-0 at Norwich but they are a Premier League club and the next manager in that opposition dugout will be Jurgen Klopp (the Liverpool manager).

“We have to be respectful of what we faced, learn some lessons, some of it was eye-opening and we need to work on it, but you need a tough pre-season to understand what you have got. If you turn over local clubs five and six it tells you absolutely nothing.”

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