Peterborough United defender 'big doubt' for Birmingham City clash

The Posh centre-back was absent for Saturday’s 4-0 thumping at the hands of Nene rivals Northampton Town after limping out of Tuesday’s victory over Crawley after an hour.

Hughes has been struggling with an ongoing unspecified issue and now looks unlikely to feature until at least the trip to Barnsley on April 21.

Posh boss Darren Ferguson rated him as a ‘big doubt’ for the visit of Birmingham on Tuesday and he will also miss the Vertu Trophy Final due to being cup-tied and he can’t return to action the following Saturday either as Posh host his parent club Stockport County.

Posh have now conceded ten goals in their last three matches going into a double header against runaway leaders Birmingham.

Ferguson said: “He’s got this problem that has been ongoing and it affected his performance on Tuesday before he couldn’t carry on. He’s going to be a big about for the Birmingham game and obviously he can’t play at Wembley or in the Stockport game after that. So, we’ll assess him in the morning.”

Hughes was replaced in the line-up by Jadel Katongo, who himself appeared to be struggling with injury in the closing stages of the match. He was not withdrawn though and limped through the final minutes in order to prevent Posh from going down to nine men.

When asked about Katongo after the match, Ferguson did not mention any concerns about the defender’s fitness for the upcoming matches.

He added: “I had a choice who I played next to Oscar. Manny started against Reading and then Jadel came on there and against Crawley and did well. I have to say, it was a shocking performance as a team today.”