King recently signed a new three-year deal with Gillingham

Gillingham defender Simon King will be out for months rather than weeks, according to the club's medical team.

The Gills player-of-the-season injured his ankle in a pre-season friendly with Bromley, and was initially thought to be sidelined for up to eight weeks.

But manager Mark Stimson says a new scan has shown ligament damage that may prevent him from playing this year.

"It's a big blow," Stimson told BBC Radio Kent. "I was expecting him to be out for a month."

"We were told last week that it wasn't too bad, but now we've had another report, a scan, and this has come up."

"It has blown me out the water, because it wasn't something I saw happening," he added.

If I was a manager of a Championship team I would probably go and pay £1.5m for someone like that Mark Stimson on Simon King

"I may be a bit biased because he is my player, but I think he's the best left-footed centre half in the league.

"I'm now going to have to make some phone calls because we might have to try to get another centre-half in to cover."

Stimson admitted that without King, the Gills would struggle to mount another promotion challenge in their first season back in League One.

"This season I think that will be a massive task," he said.

"Simon King is the complete centre-half.

"If I was a manager of a Championship team I would probably go and pay £1.5m for someone like that.

"So we might have to be a bit different at the back because Josh (Gowling) isn't a natural lefty, he's a right footer and sometimes that can cause a problem."

Before King's latest diagnosis, Stimson had already described this pre-season as his "worst ever" in terms of injuries, with midfielders Dennis Oli, Stuart Lewis and Adam Miller all picking up knocks.

Oli and Lewis are both set to miss the season opener at Swindon Town.

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