Chairman Darragh MacAnthony believes Peterborough United would have been a leading League One promotion contender with a settled centre-back pairing.

MacAnthony posed a question over the weekend regarding the number of different back fours, plus the goalkeeper, Posh have had to deploy in competitive matches this season because of illness and injury.

BBC Radio Cambs commentator Benoit Stevenson did the calculations and came up with 19. Posh have played 36 matches in all competitions.

Central defenders George Nevett, David Okagbue and Tom O’Connor have all had lengthy injury absences, while Nevett and Tom Lees missed the recent Stevenage game because of illness, thus handing a Football League debut to teenager Lucca Mendonca.

Tom Lees and David Okagbue in action for Posh. Photo David Lowndes.

placeholder image — Tom Lees and David Okagbue in action for Posh. Photo David Lowndes.

That is the only game Lees has missed since making his Posh debut towards the end of August apart from a one-match suspension following a red card. Oscar Wallin started the season as first-choice centre-back before walking out on the club in the first month of the season. Lees’ 2024-25 season was ended early by a knee injury, but the 35 year-old has stayed the fittest of all the Posh defenders.

Full-backs Harley Mills and Jacob Mendy have also been injured and both are currently sidelined. First-choice goalkeeper Alex Bass didn’t play his first game of the season until September 6 after picking up an injury in pre-season.

"We’ve had horrific luck with injuries,” MacAnthony moaned on the latest edition of his Hard Truth podcast. “And it usually involves our centre-backs. In our last promotion season Frankie Kent and Mark Beevers played virtually every game. It’s so difficult when you are having to chop and change the spine of your team all the time.

"It’s ironic that the bloke whose knee has been hanging off has been the fittest. Tom Lees has been a machine until the flu caught up with him last week. If he and David Okagbue had played 40 games together this season, along with the number one goalkeeper, we would be a top four or even a top two side.

"We spent a lot of money on David and he’s turned into a beast this season. His data is the best of any centre-back in the division. It’s been a horror show, but David is back this weekend and I just hope we now get some continuity as I want to finish this season strongly.

"The best run we had this season was in December when we were winning every game with the same centre-backs and goalkeeper playing alongside each other. We need a similar run now. We are 10 points off the play-offs, but there are 17 games to go and if we are within five points with five games to go we will have a chance.”

Frankie Kent and Mark Beevers were tposh centre-backs in the 2020-21 season and they both played 45 League One games out of 46 as promotion was secured.