Benda suffers broken finger, Edwards contracts Covid and Norburn suffers knee injury but Peterborough United also receive good injury news

The on-loan keeper has not played since picking up a back injury during the FA Cup meeting with Manchester City at the start of this month.

That injury had healed though but he suffered a fresh injury blow in training this week and is now expected to be out for four weeks with a broken finger.

McCann said: “He is probably going to be ruled out for four weeks. It’s unfortunate for us and difficult for Steven having just come back from the back injury. It’s such so unfortunate, he was just saving an innocuous shot in training and his finger has gone back.

“He’s gone for a scan but he may be ruled out for the remaining games. It’s not great for us, I didn’t get to work with him very long but I can see he is a very good goalkeeper.”

McCann will also be without the services of captain Oliver Norburn against Middlesbrough. He suffered a knee injury while playing for Grenada in Andorra and has been sent for a scan to determine the severity.

Ronnie Edwards, meanwhile, contracted Covid while away with England Under 19s and that is why he missed Tuesday’s victory against Portugal, which sealed their place in the Under 19 European Championships. McCann was due to travel to Chesterfield to watch the match but cancelled his plans. Edwards has some symptoms and will be monitored by the club.

McCann added: “It’s strange, we think we are all over this testing protocols, England obviously still do it. People have the right to do it or not but it’s frustrating for us because we are losing a player off the back of it.

“I think when you look for something you tend to find it. It’s disappointing, we will see how he is but we’re not writing him off for the weekend and we’ll check on him day-by day. He’s got some symptoms at the moment, he’s a bit lethargic and we’ll monitor him.”

There is better news for Posh in the fact that Ricky-Jade Jones has been training well after the shoulder injury he picked up against Swansea and looks set to be fit for Saturday. As too will Jonson Clarke-Harris and Joe Taylor.

Clarke-Harris went off against QPR last time out with a mix of a dead leg and a head injury. Taylor trained for the first time on the grass on Thursday (March 31) since picked up an injury against Charlton under 23s last week (March 22) and should be fit to play.

Joel Randall is not ready yet but has been on the training pitch for the last five days and McCann hopes to have him back with the squad next week. The summer signing has not played since January.