Zakuani made 37 appearances for Posh last season

Peterborough United defender Gabby Zakuani has played down speculation of a fall-out with boss Darren Ferguson after being dropped from the squad.

The 23-year-old was surprisingly left out of the Posh squad to face Plymouth on Tuesday, despite having started every other match this season.

Zakuani told BBC Radio Cambridgeshire: "There's no rift and I'm happy here.

"The manager makes the decisions and I'll still stand by him because he will get us out of the trouble we are in."

The former Fulham man was dropped from the side in favour of utility-man Charlie Lee.

Lee had not started for Posh in over a month after suffering an ankle injury in training.

"I think it was tactical more than anything else as the manager wanted two defenders who were more comfortable on the ball than me," Zakuani said.

"It's been a tough week, it's not nice being out of the side and it hurts but you have to take it on the chin."

Ferguson has admitted it was a tough call to make, but having seen his side concede two soft goals at Blackpool he felt changes at the back were needed.

"It's not easy to name a team, but we needed freshening up and I admit it was bit of a gamble," he said.

"I wanted two ball-playing centre-halves and whilst people will be critical, Gabby understood the situation."

Many fans were disappointed not to see Krystian Pearce included in the starting line-up, but Ferguson says it was not the right time to hand the Birmingham loanee a start.

"Krystian was obviously disappointed and I'm sure he's wondering when he'll get a chance," he said.

"But Charlie can play on the left side of the back two, whilst Krystian is far more comfortable on the right."

Lee remains short of match fitness so Zakuani could come back in against Nottingham Forest on Saturday.

With Posh having lost their last two league matches, Zakuani knows Saturday's match is a hugely important one.

"We'll go into the Forest match believing we can win, it's unthinkable that we should lose on Saturday," he said.

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