Josh Parker is confident young team-mate Darren Oldaker will bounce back.

Midfielder Oldaker was left out of the Gillingham squad on Boxing Day, for the game against Portsmouth, having started the previous four league games.

Parker was left sidelined himself two months ago following a lack of form and has returned a better player.

He said: “The gaffer said the same to me, ‘don’t come back until you are the Josh I know’.

“DJ (Oldaker) has been around the first team but he is not experienced. It is easy for him to get complacent even though he shouldn’t. He is comfortable with the whole club, he knows everyone.

“I said to him two games ago, ‘if you don’t fix up like now, you won’t be in the squad because you are in the squad to do a job nobody else can do. If you fall into the League 1 thing of smashing and winning headers, there is no point being there, because everyone can do that, I could do that.’

“He is there to get the ball off the centre halves and dictate the game, it doesn’t matter who we are playing against, but I think he fell into the habit of running around and rattling (people) and that is not him.

“He is a technical player and he should be playing balls into people’s feet, giving it to people to do things. I think now he is realising the levels he has to consistently train and play at, because if you get lackadaisical in training it shows in your game.

“I have no doubt he will be back in the squad in a couple of games.”

Parker feels the midfielder, who turns 20 on January 4, could go to the top but has a warning.

“I have a soft spot for him, because he is a very, very good player,” said Parker.

“He is one of those players who could either end up not playing football in two years or he will be in the Premier League, that is the realness of it, I would like to see the latter happen, rather than him working in McDonalds.”

As a senior player, Parker is happy to help, saying: “It’s for people like me to put an arm around him, the same as when I was at QPR and people like Peter Ramage and Fitz Hall put an arm around me. I have no doubt he will be back soon.”