Gillingham’s players were told to stay away from the club on Sunday in a bid to beat a bug.

Eight first team players were hit by a virus before the weekend and it meant boss Steve Evans was unable to name his team to face Wycombe on Saturday until two hours before kick-off.

The Gills managed to win, despite the problems, but took no more risks ahead of a trip to Bristol Rovers on Tuesday.

Chairman Paul Scally ordered a deep clean of the dressing room area at Priestfield and boss Evans was hoping to have all of his squad available when everyone returned to work on Monday.

“Most of the virus is gone,” said Evans, after Saturday’s win.

“The medical staff have said it is on the way out now, but the chairman has been brilliant and told some people to get it properly disinfected. We normally always have the boys in on Sunday.

“We are in, the coaching staff, but on medical advice the players will stay away and report back again Monday.

“The doctors believe that it’s a 24-36 hour bug. If it is, by Monday we should have all of our squad available to us.

“We will probably need to freshen the team up on Tuesday anyway because it’s a long trip and we will probably need some fresh legs because they have had to work incredibly hard to win (against Wycombe).”

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Evans was without Regan Charles-Cook because of illness and leading scorer Alex Jakubiak was named on the bench to make up the numbers – too unwell to play.

Olly Lee played, but was under the weather, as the Gills still managed to clinch a 2-0 victory.

Tuesday's opponents Bristol Rovers claimed a 1-0 win at Lincoln on Saturday and will pose another big challenge.

Evans said: “It’s tough to go to both Bristol teams, City and Rovers, they have fervent fans like we have that will get behind them.

“Barring Burton at home and a half at Tranmere and Coventry, we have played very well and competed.

"We will need to do that at Bristol Rovers but we have enough ability in the locker to get something.”

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