Watford are expected to hand defender Younes Kaboul his debut in tonight's home game against Gillingham in the EFL Cup.

Kaboul joined the Hornets on Friday from Sunderland in a three-year deal and should feature against their League One opponents at Vicarage Road.

But fellow new signing Roberto Pereyra is still waiting for his work permit following his move from Juventus.

Head coach Walter Mazzarri is likely to rotate his squad with players such as Matej Vydra in contention to make their first start of the season.

Midfielder Etienne Capoue has recovered from the knock he picked up against Chelsea while Ben Watson is available again following his one-match ban. 

Brice Dja Djédjé remains out with a foot injury and Isaac Success (leg muscle injury) is expected to resume training later this week. 

Gillingham are tenth in League One but Justin Edinburgh's side suffered a 5-0 defeat at Scunthorpe in their last match on Saturday.

Hornets defender Craig Cathcart insists the Premier League side will not be taking their opponents lightly tonight even if there are significant changes to the team.

Cathcart said: "We’ll take the Gillingham game very seriously; they’re coming to our home and we want to get our first win on the board. We want to get through and see who we get in the next round.

"We haven’t really looked past this game but over the next couple of days manager will probably be looking at what he’s going to do, if he’s going to give some lads playing time, but it’s down to him and we’ll all be ready to play and fully-focused on the game."

The Northern Ireland international added: "It’s another game and a good opportunity to show the new manager what we’re about; it’s a good chance to get a good cup run going, it’s always unbelievable to go and play at Wembley and that would be nice to do again.

"We go into the game 100 per cent focused to try to get through."