Birchall on the mend for Gills
Gillingham striker Adam Birchall has been running again suffering a cruciate knee ligament injury during pre-season.
Last Updated: 14/12/11 5:43pm
Gillingham striker Adam Birchall has been running again suffering a cruciate knee ligament injury during pre-season.
Birchall, 27, signed from non-league Dover over the summer but sustained the injury against Welling in mid-July, before managing a competitive appearance for Gills.
But despite the need the remain patient, manager Andy Hessenthaler has revealed the forward is starting to step up his rehabilitation.
Hessenthaler told the club's official website: "Without getting too carried away, he's started running this week, or jogging, on the crash mat so there's not too much weight bearing on the knee because we don't want to start too early in case there's any reaction on that.
"He's an excited young man at the moment because he's got to that stage. We're excited but we're not going to get carried away because he's still got a long way to go.
"He's given everyone a lift, I don't think it'll be too long before he'll be back down the training ground and that'll give us another lift."