Gillingham manager Gareth Ainsworth doesn’t want to make any injury problems worse ahead of the summer break as he defends weekend substitutions against Grimsby Town

Manager Gareth Ainsworth had ‘no regrets’ over subbing Conor Masterson on Saturday and insists he won’t take any injury risks.

The Gills had just gone 2-1 down against Grimsby Town when Ainsworth switched from a four-man defence to a back three, replacing centre-half Masterson with striker Sam Vokes.

Gillingham conceded a minute after the switch and then a fourth, before Ainsworth changed things around again, giving Watford loan defender Travis Akomeah a run-out as forward Garath McCleary was withdrawn.

By then, the Gills were 4-1 down and hoping for the full-time whistle.

Ainsworth said: “You try and get back in games…I don't regret taking Conor off, because Conor's struggling. He's nowhere near ready for a 90 yet.

“I'm glad I protected Conor and Garath. People will raise their eyebrows about Garath. ‘Why did you take him off?’ He's 38 years old.

“The last thing we need is him popping his calf in the 90th minute and not being able to feature for the rest of the season.

“These are all things that people don't see but I have to manage and I'm fine doing it.”

Midfielder Robbie McKenzie was missing on Saturday after damaging his ankle in the midweek game at Cheltenham. Defender Andy Smith was also absent after breaking his nose in the same match.

The Gills were already without centre-halves Omar Beckles and Shad Ogie.

“I'm not going to risk anyone getting injured at this stage of the season,” Ainsworth said.

“It'd be crazy to do that but we do need to learn from the mistakes [of Saturday].

“The boys will be in watching the video and I'll be saying, again, very similar messages. Another set piece. We're very weak on a set-piece defending this year. We have to improve on that.

“There are three or four things that we need to