Peterborough United players still fighting against illness ahead of Boxing Day clash with Mansfield Town

Posh will welcome key midfielder Archie Collins back after he missed the Friday night defeat at Stockport because of sickness and his regular partner Hector Kyprianou is also expected to be available despite limping off at Edgeley Park with a foot injury. Summer signing Rio Adebisi, who made his long-awaited club debut at Stockport, will be involved again on Boxing Day.

But ‘two or three' unnamed players have been ill this week leaving manager Darren Ferguson to delay naming his starting line-up for the visit of a Stags team who have impressed following their promotion from League Two last season.

"It is that time of the year when illness can strike,” Ferguson said on Christmas Eve. “And there is still a bit floating around the squad. Two or three players have been affected so we will have to see how they are tomorrow. Archie is back which is obviously good and we expect Hector to be available. He had an injection yesterday to get the inflammation down, but we also have to be mindful of him coming back from a long absence.

"We will be rotating the squad as much as we can through this busy period. The players did most of the work for Boxing Day today and they will have a light session on Christmas morning.

"It’s a tough game for us against Mansfield. They have been together for a while and the players have a complete understanding of the way they play. They started the season well and, although the win against Rotherham on Saturday was a first in eight games, they’ve been competitive in the games they haven’t won. They have good experience throughout the team, but as always our focus will be on implementing our own game and getting the speed of our play right.

"We’re looking forward to the game. Boxing Day is always a big game. The atmosphere will be good and I know we will get good backing form our fans. This season hasn’t gone as we wanted it to so far, but we took 700 to a game at Stockport on the Friday night before Christmas which is a fantastic effort.

"The fans and the players are used to challenging for promotion at this level. That has happened yet this season, but there are a lot of games left and we need to make sure the second half of this season goes better than the first half. Our focus right now is getting consistency. We are looking no further than the next game.”

Posh also host Barnsley on Sunday, December 29 and travel to Burton Albion on New Year’s Day in their other League One festive matches.