Peterborough United boosted by return of Nathan Thompson ahead of Morecambe clash

The 31-year-old limped out of the club’s final pre-season friendly at home to Hull and Grant McCann decided not to risk him in the opening day victory over Cheltenham.

McCann described him as 50/50 for that match but he is not glad that he did not take the risk as Thompson has now been able to complete a full week of training.

Joe Ward was risked in that match, coming on at half time to play at right wing back after injury concerns of his own and he went onto set up two of the side’s three goals during the dramatic comeback.

Following that match, McCann stated he hoped that the appearance had not hampered Ward’s recovery; something that does not appear to have happened given he described Ward as being in a “better place” on Thursday (August 4).

Posh’s only other outfield injury concerns is Kwame Poku, who suffered a calf injury in training while kicking a ball. Posh initially feared that he had damaged his achilles but have received positive news that he is only expected to miss another week before returning to training.

Harvey Cartwright will also miss the Morecambe match, still struggling with a thigh problem.

McCann said: “Harvey is back in training, he trained on Tuesday but we’ve still got to be careful as it’s a thigh problem and he hasn’t been exposed to much kicking. He’s touch and go but I’m not sure we’ll take a risk on him but maybe he’ll be good to go for the week after.

“I joked with him, I wouldn’t have see you out on the grass today if we’d have kept a clean against Cheltenham would I?

"Healthy competition is always good, we’ve got two excellent young goalkeeper; four including Will Blackmore and Will Lakin.

They’re all pushing each other every day. In an ideal world, we would get Will out on loan to play some games but because of the injury to Harvey, we haven’t explored that yet too deeply. At some point towards the end of the window, we will look to do that though.”