'Strange' growth sidelines Peterborough's Ihionvien

Bradley Ihionvien scored five goals in 39 appearances for former club Colchester

Peterborough United striker Bradley Ihionvien will be out of action until the new year because of an unusual bone growth in his leg.

The 20-year-old joined Posh from Colchester United in the summer, signing a three-year contract with the League One club.

But he has only made four substitute appearances in the league - and his only goal for Peterborough came in the EFL Trophy.

"Brad has had a scan and it's not good, he's got a freak injury in his leg. They've found another bone has grown, so it's a bit of a strange one," Ferguson told BBC Radio Cambridgeshire.

"He's probably going to have to stay off his feet for a couple of months."

Defender Rio Adebisi, meanwhile, is having to be monitored on a "day-to-day" basis as he aims to return to action following a knee injury.

Posh paid an undisclosed fee to sign the 24-year-old from Crewe Alexandra, where he made 136 appearances, but he has yet to earn his debut - and had to miss a planned game for the Under-21 side last week.

"Rio is going to be a completely isolated case to the rest because the nature of his injury is so different to others," added Ferguson.

"We're not going to risk anything. Unfortunately, after the (training) sessions last week, a bit of swelling came up, which is to be expected, but it didn't go down as quickly as we thought.

"The plan is for him to train Monday, to play 45 (minutes) at Brentford on Tuesday, I think that would be good for him and his confidence to expose him to a game, but if not, we'll just have to manage him as best as we can."

Peterborough are currently 12th in the table and face Reading at home on Saturday, two weeks on from thrashing Cambridge United 6-1 in their last game.