OXFORD United expect John Mousinho to only miss a few days with the hamstring problem which forced him off in Saturday’s win against Blackpool.

The skipper was substituted after 65 minutes in the 1-0 victory at the Kassam Stadium.

But Mousinho, who has started 25 of the last 26 games, had already flagged up a tightness in the muscle at half-time and monitored it closely during the second half.

Manager Pep Clotet thought the centre back would miss Tuesday’s visit to Charlton Athletic in the Checkatrade Trophy, but was otherwise unconcerned.

He said: “I think he will be all right.

“The only thing he told me after the game was he preferred to pull up because he started to feel it.

“That’s good, he has experience and he saw it in time.

“We knew at half-time he might not be able to finish and it was more precautionary.

“Mousinho has been playing a lot of games in a row.

“He had a good recovery and he has a good muscle build, so I wasn’t really worried.

“He said as soon as I feel it gets tighter I will come off before it gets to an injury. I completely agree with that.”

Clotet also explained why Mousinho was replaced by Mike Williamson, rather than new signing Rob Dickie.

He said: “I want to make sure that Dickie knows exactly how we play and all the patterns we do.

“Otherwise it’s unfair to give him the chance before he knows everything.”