Centre-back Elkan Baggott pulled out of the warm-up on Monday after struggling to shake off an injury.

The Indonesian international defender has been carrying an ankle injury in recent weeks and had to pull out of the game at Stevenage. Baggott, 20, ended up watching the match from the stands.

Manager Neil Harris explained: “He had an ankle injury which he sustained a couple of weeks ago and then he aggravated it at Sutton.

“He did train on Sunday and he was included in the group (at Stevenage) but then pulled out in warm-up and ruled himself out.”

Baggott turned down the chance to play for Indonesia in the AFF Championships over the Christmas period, in favour of helping the Gills try and pull clear of the bottom of League 2. His country are progressing well in the tournament and beat the Philippines on Monday in Manila to qualify for the semi-finals.

The Gills were only able to name six players on the bench after bringing senior stopper Glenn Morris back from injury, which meant Jake Turner dropping to the bench which in turn left youth goalie Taite Holtam out of the squad. Teams must include a homegrown player in their squad or name one substitute less, which they did.

In Baggott’s place on the bench went Ryan Law, the Plymouth loan defender, who had travelled with the squad. Law hasn’t featured in recent weeks.

Despite sitting it out of late, Plymouth manager manager Steven Schumacher recently said he was happy with defender Law staying at Gills, but whether he does remains to be seen.

Law, 23, has made 17 league appearances for the Gills this season.

Last week, Schumacher told Plymouth Live: “Gillingham have had a bit of a tough time - a tougher time than what we expected their team to be having.

"Ryan has still played his part. He's learning all the time from his experience so we wouldn't be too quick to end that.”

Fellow loanee Haji Mnoga is set to return to Portsmouth after a disappointing loan spell for him at Gillingham. The League 1 club have just sacked their manager Danny Cowley after a nine-game winless run left them nine points off the play-offs in mid-table.