Peter Taylor insists striker Danny Kedwell remains an important member of his squad.

Kedwell has started just one of Gillingham’s last four games and on Saturday was an unused sub.

Gills boss Taylor revealed that he has been reluctant to overuse the striker while he has been suffering with a knee injury.

Kedwell received an injection this week to help with the recovery. He is expected back in training on Thursday and Taylor is keen to get his striker back 100% fit.

And the manager rubbished suggestions he wanted Kedwell out.

He said: “If I wanted him out the way I could have done, not a problem.

“There were enough people who showed interest in him when the loan market finished but I didn’t want him to go anywhere.

“I want him to stay here. I think he is a very important player here.”

Kedwell’s knee problems have been ongoing and Taylor explained the situation.

He said: “He has not been 100% fit. After the Orient game (on November 15), when Dan came off, we had a good chat on the Monday and the Tuesday. One was about the penalty situation and the Tuesday was more about his knee.

“Two games before that he had taken a bit of a whack on his knee and Dan being Dan he just wants to play. He probably didn’t tell the physio he had a bit of pain and he didn’t tell me because he doesn’t want to get anything in the way of him playing in the game.

“Then, of course, the nightmare for him is that if he is playing at 80% he is not the Danny Kedwell that we know.

“We agreed there was something wrong and we got it looked at. It’s nothing major, but it is a little injection that is needed to sort something out, so he would then be pain free.

“He wasn’t pain free before. When he was trying to hit the ball hard, he was getting problems and if you’ve got that, that is going to affect your performance.”