When Harley Mills will be back and a passionate defence of the Peterborough United medical team from the chairman

MacAnthony, on an episode of his ‘Hard Truth’ podcast released on Christmas Eve, also defended the work of club physio Jon Chatfield after he was apparently criticised on a Posh fans podcast.

Mills suffered his injury in training and he has now had an operation, one the 20 year-old says was successful. There was also criticism of manager Luke Williams for failing to offer more than basic injury information after Mills was ruled of Saturday’s League One win at Port Vale, and also his decision to play Jacob Mendy in place of Mills. Mendy, who had been absent since the start of October with a groin issue, played 40 minutes before going off at Vale Park.

Williams explained his logic during an interview on Posh Plus on Tuesday and MacAnthony offered pretty much the same explanation today.

"Harley Mills is out for three months which is a shame as he was flying,” MacAnthony said. “And the manager didn’t want to confirm things until he knew the results of a scan and Harley’s operation.

"We are lucky at our club to have a best-in-class physio in ‘Chats’ and a ‘best-in-class’ sports scientist in Lewis Keeble. And to hear our physio basically get slandered on a podcast, well I’m not having that.

"Two seasons ago we had 94% availability which was the best in the EFL. Last season we were still in the top eight for availability and there is very little anyone could have done about the injuries we have suffered this season.

"Harley just stretched in training, Sam Hughes had a calf issue in the summer and some scarring has followed which can happen, Tom Lees has a knee problem that could flare up at any time and yet he has played virtually every game, Declan Frith had bruising behind a knee which was causing him pain which we acted upon when we discovered it and Cian Hayes suffered an injury in training which was supposed to keep him out until January, but he was back last weekend.

"Rio Adebisi is a long-term absentee, but he is back on the grass now. His absence was nothing to our do with our medical staff. People also talk about George Nevett, but he has been available for the last week-and-a-half without being able to get back into the team.

“With Jacob he passed all our training protocols. He had been training hard and with intensity and he came through it all. The manager then made a decision to start him which was fair enough, but Jacob then picked up a different little injury.

"We currently have four players out of 40 out with injuries – Rio, Sam, Harley and Jacob. Port Vale had 10 players missing on Saturday.

"’Chat’s’ won’t rush people back, but he also won’t hold them back. He’s one of the best at what he does. I even saw someone looking back into his history at other clubs which was bad. ‘Chats’ has had good jobs in the past and worked with the England set-up for a time, and he has turned down good jobs to stay with us.”

Posh are back in League One action at home to Leyton Orient on Boxing Day (3pm).