Gillingham manager Neil Harris has confirmed striker Lewis Walker will be missing for the early months of the season.

A knee injury could keep the 24-year-old out for “10-12 weeks” said the Gills boss.

Walker - who missed the end of last season with an injury to his other knee - received the latest set-back while playing in Gills’ game at Dover last weekend. Scans confirmed the club’s worst fears.

Harris, who had been looking forward to seeing what the front-man could do this summerlooking forward to seeing what the front-man could do this summer, said: “Unfortunately it’s the exact same injury on the other knee, so a real shame for him.

“He came back (for pre-season) strong. We could have pushed him at the end of last season but chose not to, to have him ready for pre-season and physically he has been in the best shape of his life, from hard work over the summer.

“It is a contact injury at Dover which he did after about 35 minutes.

“He finished the game, then complained of soreness and we chose not to take him to Como as a precaution. He had the scan and got the result and it was right what the physio had diagnosed on the spot at Dover, so a real shame, a shame for him, a shame for us.

“We will try and get Lewis back into the group as quickly as we can.”

It’s better news for fellow striker Oli Hawkins, who missed the weekend game against Millwall after picking up a heel injury.

He’s only expected to be missing for around a week.

Harris said: “When you are 6ft 6in and 16 stone and you put everything into the game like Oli does, you are going to pick stuff up.

“He has done nothing wrong, nothing can be helped, the staff have done done nothing wrong as a group, it is just one of those pre-season things, he just needs to come off it for a week for a week or so.

“He will have an injection on Monday just to try and speed up the healing process, giving him some more comfort, and he should be back on the training pitch. He won’t play against Charlton (on Tuesday) and very unlikely against Dartford (next Saturday).”

Young forward Matty Macarthur has also been missing after suffering a calf injury.