Gillingham take on a Walsall team missing international players for the League 2 game at Priestfield

Gillingham’s weekend opponents have three regular starters missing on international duty but home boss John Coleman doubts it will make a difference.

League 2 leaders Walsall will be without England under-21 goalkeeper Tommy Simkin and a couple of mainstay defenders in Liam Gordon (Guyana) and David Okagbue (Ireland u21s).

They’re also without on-loan Manchester United striker Ethan Wheatley. He scored against Wales on Wednesday night. Two other players are with Ireland’s under-21s but wouldn’t have featured anyway.

Walsall will be without suspended left wing-back Connor Barrett for the trip but Coleman’s likened the absentees to having a flurry of injuries - a common drawback for all clubs.

He said: “I've been in a situation plenty of times where I've been ravaged with injuries and we’ve turned in one of the best performances of the season with players who haven't played for months.

“Football is full of surprises, it throws up many unpredictable things. I don't think them having players on international duty will make any difference.

“They've had a remarkable season, got themselves a healthy lead, it's been narrowed down but they're still top of the league, still in pole position that everyone would want to change places with.

“We know it's going to be a tough game. I know they've got players missing through international duty but they've still got a good squad.

“I watched them last week against Bromley and they were disappointed that they couldn't get all three points for that.

“We know what threats they'll pose and they'll know about us anyway because we played them not so long back.

“We've just got to try and play to the best of our ability, keep up the standards that we've set ourselves as regards to effort,