Queens Park Rangers manager Mark Warburton has revealed that he opted to substitute Sam McCallum during yesterday's clash with Peterborough United in order to prevent him from suffering another significant injury setback.

The defender felt some tightness in his hamstring and thus was replaced in the 82nd minute by Chris Willock at the Weston Homes Stadium.

Peterborough secured all three points in this particular fixture as Siriki Dembele netted a late winner for Darren Ferguson's side.

QPR opened the scoring in the 50th minute as Ilias Chair scored directly from a corner.

Peterborough then levelled proceedings via a strike from Harrison Burrows.

Posh sealed victory in stoppage-time as Dembele latched onto Oliver Norburn's pass and fired past QPR goalkeeper Seny Dieng.

As a result of this defeat, QPR slipped to seventh in the Championship standings.

Making reference to his decision to substitute McCallum, Warburton has admitted that he did not want to risk the defender suffering a major setback in the closing stages of the game.

Speaking to West London Sport following his side's 2-1 defeat to Peterborough about the defender, Warburton said: "We had to take Sam off, unfortunately, because he had a tight hamstring and we had to be careful with him.

"We lost our balance."

The Verdict

When you consider that McCallum was recently forced to watch on from the sidelines for several weeks due to an issue with his hamstring, it could be argued that Warburton made the right call to substitute the defender if he was feeling some tightness in yesterday's clash.

With Lee Wallace currently out of action, QPR are short of options at left-back and thus they will be hoping that McCallum will be fit enough to feature in Tuesday's League Cup showdown with Sunderland.

Since joining the Hoops on a season-long loan deal from Norwich City in the summer transfer window, the 21-year-old has delivered some impressive performances in the Championship.

As well as scoring two goals for QPR at this level, McCallum is currently averaging a respectable WhoScored match rating of 6.87 in the second-tier.

Providing that he is able to maintain his consistency as well as his fitness in the coming months, the defender could play a crucial role for the Hoops as they look to launch a push for a top-six finish this season.