Peterborough United defender Nathan Thompson could still play again this season

The 32-year-old defender is currently ruled out with ankle ligament damage sustained after a heavy, unpunished tackle from Ethan Hamilton against Accrington Stanley last Tuesday night.

Posh have not written his season off entirely but the earliest possible estimated return would be a play-off second leg, if Posh made it that far.

Darren Ferguson said: “It is not as severe as we thought it might be but it’s bad enough.

"Realistically, the only way we will see him again this season is if we get to the final. He may have a slight chance for the second leg of a semi- he’s quite a quick healer- but we’ll wait and see.

"Our focus is on getting into the play-offs before thinking about anything else.”

Posh switched to a back three against Ipswich but Darren Ferguson has insisted his squad still retains flexibility.

He added: “I just felt that against Ipswich, an unnatural right back against them wouldn’t have been the right call.

"We can definitely play a back four, we ended up like that. We’ve got Josh Knight who can play there, Ward can and Ben Thompson can so we’ve got options.

"With Wardy fit, we’ve got roal options to do either.”