Peterborough United's players need to be more durable and willing to put their bodies on the line insists Chairman Darragh MacAnthony

Dan Butler has been praised for the way he has come back from his career-threatening injury last year. Photo: Joe Dent.

Speaking on his Hard Truth podcast, MacAnthony questioned the desire and advice being given to some of his side and urged them to look at examples in the squad to follow.

“Dan Butler should be a symbol of what we want to be all about. He had a career-threatening injury, there was an 80% chance he would never play again.

"He’s come back; he can’t train full time, he trains and it’s killing him and he goes and trains and plays every game because he’s a man.

"Jonson Clarke-Harris is another example. He does an ankle ligament against Cambridge - plays the whole game and should be out for two weeks but he comes off the bench in the FA Cup game and then plays the full 90 minutes at Exeter - that’s a proper man.

"If it was some of the other players, they’d be out for a month."

The chairman has been left unhappy at what he sees as players not willing to put their bodies on the line after a series of players in recent weeks have missed games due to knocks.

He continued: “My manager can very rarely name the same eleven for more than two games.

"Teams that get promoted, yes they have a squad, but a lot of time with our promotions you always know the same 13 or 14 players that are going to be in the eleven of coming off the bench.

"My manager can talk about the lack of impact off the bench but durability is an issue for us and that’s one we need to fix very quickly.

"Some of our players have to look at themselves and ask, are they putting their bodies on the line? Sometimes younger players listen to outside sources and even when scans say there’s nothing wrong, they still feel sore and in a bit of pain so want to rest.

"We’ve got one player out with a bone bruise, which loads of footballers play with and he’s getting external advice to take a rest for weeks.

"We have a very professional staff at the club, you listen to them, but more importantly you should want to go out and play. You have to look at Butler and go, what am I doing here?

“Some of them want to go and earn the big bucks and should remember that clubs will look at the average games they will play each year.

“I go back to the teams that won promotion, including teams that Grant McCann played in, what were they built on? Players who would play with sore ankles, sore knees if a scan said there was nothing wrong.

"Grant never played fully fit in his career, probably.

"Probably over four years, between George Boyd, Aaron McLean and Craig Mackail-Smith; I think Aaron McLean was the only one who missed a long period- with a broken shoulder and he still came back three weeks early

“Lee Tomlin, Ryan Bennett, Gaby Zakuani; these players were durable. They were available. Gaby Zakuani played with two dislocated shoulders, he played with broken toes.

"We are not durable enough. That’s not about winning or losing, it’s about availability.”