Peterborough United boss Grant McCann still hopeful goalkeeper Harvey Cartwright will be for start of the League One season

Cartwright has had a few minor injury issues in pre-season and missed the 3-0 demolition of Hull on Saturday (July 23) with a thigh problem.

The issue is not thought to be serious but it did allow Lucas Bergstrom to stake his claim for the number one jersey with 80 minutes against the Championship side. The 6’9 Finn had an easy afternoon as Hull failed to a meaningful shot on target. He gave way in the final ten minutes for youngster Will Lakin, who was also not required to make a save.

Cartwright, who is on loan from Hull, now faces a race against time to be fit for the opening fixture at Cheltenham but McCann has said that there is still a chance.

An injury to Cartwright would hand Bergstrom the starting spot for the opening day but who stays in that role long-term is still unclear with neither really standing up and making the position there’s with their performances during pre-season, a fact that also does not concern McCann.

He said: “We’re hoping Harvey is going to be ok next week. He’s had some disappointing news back from the scan but I’m going to speak to the Hull physios here as well and hopefully we can be a bit aggressive with it and push him to be ready for next Saturday.

"If not, he may miss that one and be available for the Morecambe game but when we went to recruit goalkeepers in the summer, we made the decision we wanted to recruit two very good young ones.

“One is an England Under-20 international, the other an international with Finland. They’re both really good up and coming goalkeepers and they will both compete over that time for that position.

“I will always pick the keeper in the best form but in the years I’ve been a manager it has never concerned me to change a keeper. They just have to make sure they are fighting for the position.”

Posh were also without Hector Kyprianou, Joe Ward and Ben Mensah but all are expected back in training this week.

McCann added: “Kyprianou is fine, he’ll train on Monday and so will Benji Mensah. On Joe Ward, we are waiting to hear back from a scan but the plan is for him to train on Tuesday. We will push Harvey but it might be more realistic to say he’ll be ready for Morecambe.”