Injury concern for Peterborough United captain in season opener against Reading and why summer signing was left out of the matchday squad

Mason-Clark was withdrawn in 49th minute of Posh’s 1-0 win at Reading after going down with no-one around him.

In the first half, he had scored a fantastic looping header to give Posh the three points in what was his first game leading the side out as captain.

Mason-Clark was replaced by Ricky-Jade Jones, who caused plenty of problems with his pace as Posh came under pressure to hold onto their lead.

Darren Ferguson took the decision to take the 23-year-old off immediately to protect him against what the club believe is a potential hamstring injury.

Ferguson said: “He’s felt something in his hamstring, which is quite surprising because he’s a fit boy. We’ve not risked anything.

“He’s definitely not pulled anything we don’t think. He was disappointed to come off, but the tell tale signs to say it could go were there.

“I don’t think it has, but I’ll check with the doctors. To be fair to Ricky he went on and did really well and for 15 minutes he was unplayable.”

The only notable absentee from Posh’s squad for the match was new signing Ryan De Havilland from Barnet.

Ferguson revealed after the match that the decision was tactical.

He added: “19 players travelled and I had to leave one out. I quite like players just having a look at the level. He’s come from a little bit of a lower one and I also felt that going with four centre midfielders in my 18, it was just too many.

“Ryan was fine, he’s done really well but we’ve got to be patient with him. The decision was him or Jeando and Jeando is just different from the other three.

“Ryan has done nothing wrong, he’s trained very well and he’s a very good player.”