diff --git a/system/libraries/Input.php b/system/libraries/Input.php
index f26df75..347aac3 100644
--- a/system/libraries/Input.php
+++ b/system/libraries/Input.php
@@ -555,7 +555,7 @@
 		* the conversion of entities to ASCII later.
 		*
 		*/
-		$str = preg_replace('#(&\#?[0-9a-z]{2,})[\x00-\x20]*;?#i', "\\1;", $str);
+		$str = preg_replace('#(&\#?[0-9a-z]{2,})([\x00-\x20])*;?#i', "\\1;\\2", $str);
 
 		/*
 		* Validate UTF16 two byte encoding (x00)