Peterborough United suffer suspension and injury concerns despite victory over local rivals Cambridge

Jonson Clarke-Harris of Peterborough United battled through an early knock against Cambridge. Photo: Joe Dent.Jonson Clarke-Harris of Peterborough United battled through an early knock against Cambridge. Photo: Joe Dent.
Jonson Clarke-Harris of Peterborough United battled through an early knock against Cambridge. Photo: Joe Dent.
Peterborough United’s Frankie Kent has picked up an automatic one-match suspension for a fifth yellow card of the season.

Posh will be without Frankie Kent for the trip to Exeter in two week’s time (November 12) after he collected a fifth caution of the season in the 1-0 derby victory over Cambridge.

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Kent appeared to be harshly treated by referee Scott Oldham when he was penalised after jumping for a header against Lloyd Jones in the first half.

Kent had been just one booking away from a one-match suspension for the last eight league games but will now miss the next league game. Suspensions for yellow cards apply only to the competition they were picked up in, therefore he will be available for the visit of Salford in the FA Cup next week (November 5).

Posh also suffered a couple of injury blows in the match with Dan Butler having to be taken off in stoppage time after being knocked to the ground, with blood seen pouring from the side of his head. He was replaced with a concussion substitution by Josh Knight.

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Jonson Clarke-Harris also took a knock to his ankle in the opening minutes of the match and received attention to the injury twice before making it through 86 minutes.

McCann had no lasting concerns about Clarke-Harris after the match but Butler will now be assessed.

He said: “Jonno took a whack early doors but carried on. He’s so important to us, not just his link-up play, his general play, his hold-up play, his heading ability but his defensive ability as well at defending corners. They’re a big team and they do put it down your throat a lot and we had to defend it.

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"Dan is ok, he’s had a couple of stitches so we’ll see how he is and whether or not it’s a concussion. He walked off the pitch ok, we’ve used a concussion sub and once the doctor assesses him and speaks to the EFL medical people, we’ll know more. I’m hoping it’s not too serious.”

Knight made a return to action after dropping to the bench against Oxford and Accrington Stanley due to tightness in his groin. He was joined on the bench by Ricky-Jade Jones, who came on for the final 20 minutes, having not appeared since limping off with an ankle injury against Wycombe two weeks ago.

Joe Ward, who limped off in the opening 15 minutes against Oxford, will have to wait until at least next week for his return after failing to come through a fitness test.

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McCann added: “It was a late call on Ricky, we thought we were going to have Joe Ward today. Joe came out to train but went back in again; the pain just wasn’t bearable for him. Ricky didn’t train yesterday. He did a late fitness test this morning and we took a bit of a gamble as he’s not done much physical work this week. He’d done a lot in the gym but he’s not been on the grass and it was pleasing to see him back. We want the local boys involved in these games.

“Next week gives us a chance to offload the boys, it’s been relentless in the last couple of weeks with five or six games. Probably the most pleasing thing for me is the fact that the boys have been really good in that spell. We’ve asked a lot of the players to go Saturday, Tuesday and we’ve come out with a nine-point week.”