Gillingham midfielder Armani Little faces time on the sidelines after limping off with a hamstring injury on Saturday.

The Gills vice captain lasted less than half an hour in the game against Port Vale before the muscle injury got the better of him. Manager Mark Bonner knows losing him will hurt.

Little’s been one of the standout signings from the summer and was key to Gillingham’s fast start against Port Vale at the weekend. His injury is now being assessed.

Bonner’s dealt with injury issues all season but, speaking on Thursday, was hopeful of having quite a few players back and available in the coming days.

Speaking of Little’s injury after the game on Saturday, he said: “I thought Armani was brilliant at the time.

“I don’t know how bad it is but he's done his hamstring and that's a real loss for us.

“You could see the legs and energy that he played with, that Timmy (Dieng) played with on the opposite side, that the front two gave us early on and that the two wing-backs gave us, really aggressive, which I loved and it was a shame for us with Armani.

“You always think about ‘look who's coming back’ and then that happens and there's no shock that is what happens, so we'll have to be ‘please God it's not too bad’ but it didn't look great because instantly he knew. He had to come off.

“We won't know that for a few days yet and that's a real shame because he is the epitome of what we want our team to be about really.

“We do miss him when he's not there but we'll just see how that plays out.”

That tenacity was clear to see in Little’s brief showing on Saturday, driving the team on, and his last act while on the ground was to try and win the ball with his head.

He was one of several struggling on the slippy surface.

Bonner said: “I remember John Terry doing that once in a cup final, it reminded me of it right in front of me, but there's a few that need to get some studs because it's getting slippy out there. There was a lot of them slipping over.

“It’s really unfortunate for him but he is brave as a lion that boy.”