Gillingham director of football Peter Taylor is free to carry on his role as assistant manager with New Zealand.

Taylor was appointed to the role at Gillingham alongside head coach Ady Pennock but has confirmed he will be combining that with his international commitments.

New Zealand will be heading to Russia at the end of the month to compete in the FIFA Confederations Cup and preparations for the tournament begin on Friday with a game against Northern Ireland in Belfast.

Taylor is assistant to All Whites head coach Anthony Hudson, who used to be his Olympic coach during a spell together in Bahrain.

Taylor said: “Whenever they play their matches I go and help, so I could be away for 10 days about four times a year, something like that.

“I explained that to the chairman (Paul Scally) and he totally understands.

“Being director of football, it is not important that I am here every Saturday, it is important that I am there for Ady to bounce ideas off and do my other little jobs and many of those jobs I can do on the telephone.”

Taylor has been helpful in keeping an eye on the New Zealand-based players playing in England, such as Leeds striker Chris Wood and West Ham’s Winston Reid. And he is sure there are others who could make a career in England, even with the Gills.

He said: “I think there are players that if they were to get European passports, they would be good news, there are certain ones in that category without a doubt.

“They would be good enough for Gillingham, 100%.”

The All Whites begin their Confederations Cup challenge on June 17 against hosts Russia in St Petersburg. They follow that with games against Mexico and Portugal.