SOUTHEND United manager Phil Brown hopes Jermaine McGlashan has stopped himself suffering a long spell on the sidelines with a hamstring problem.

McGlashan went off after just 17 minutes in Saturday’s 2-0 win against Colchester United.

But, in doing so, Brown feels McGlashan could have kept himself in contention for Saturday’s League One opener against Gillingham.

“The beauty of Jermaine is that he’s pulled himself out of the equation to be in the equation for Saturday against Gillingham.

“It was a precaution him pulling out of the game instead of staying on and waiting for the hamstring to ping.

“It looks like he’s OK but we will keep an eye on it now.”

However, other than McGlashan’s slight injury scare, Brown was satisfied by his side’s final pre-season friendly ahead of the new League One campaign.

“It was a decent result and performance and it was good to get the clean sheet too,” said Brown.

“Pre-season preparations have been eight or nine out of 10 but injury wise it’s been one or two out of 10.