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By David Pritchard
Andy Hessenthaler is looking to offload out of favour Gillingham players before the transfer window closes to balance the influx of new signings.
Adebayo Akinfenwa became the seventh new player to join the club this summer when he agreed a one-year deal yesterday (Thursday). It swelled the senior squad to 25 players, four more than Hessenthaler originally wanted when he took over in May.
Other than the out of contract players released at the end of last season, the only player to leave so far is Simeon Jackson, who moved to Norwich earlier this month.
Hessenthaler admitted he would be looking into selling players, preferably before the window shuts at the end of August.
He said: “It’s like anything, at the end of the day we can’t keep everybody happy. If players aren’t playing unfortunately we will have to probably move a couple on, that’s life. Because of these [transfer] windows it makes it difficult, but we’ll wait and see.”
Another headache is the number of players in the treatment room just over a week before the start of the League Two season. Mark McCammon and Akinfenwa are injury-free but both short of match fitness, as is Cody McDonald, who may need an injection to clear up a niggling foot injury.
The main concern is at the back, with Hessenthaler preparing to start the campaign without Barry Fuller and Garry Richards, who are struggling with knee and ankle injuries respectively.
He said: “Barry Fuller’s touch and go for Saturday week. He’s progressing quite nicely but his game is about getting up and down and tackling. That type of injury has got to be very strong to take all that pressure. It’ll take a bit of time.
“[Richards] is not going to be ready. He’s still only been involved in training really and needs games, so I can’t see him being involved. In defensive areas I would say it’s a slight problem to us because if Barry’s missing and Garry is out as well it may mean we have to slot Mark Bentley in at centre-half and push Tony Sinclair to right-back.”
Gillingham play their penultimate pre-season friendly on Saturday against Croydon Athletic. The match has been switched to Bourne Park, Sittingbourne due to problems with the Rams’ pitch.
Kick-off is at 3pm, log on to www.twitter.com/KOSMediaSport for updates from the game.
POSTED: 30/07/2010 15:12:37