The Pole suffered a knee injury in his debut for the reserves at Manchester City in midweek.

Szamotulski's injury means that Chris Neal will resume on the North End bench bench.

And with Darren Carter suspended for one match after picking up his fifth booking at Colchester, Richard Chaplow is expected to take over in the centre of midfield alongside skipper Paul McKenna.

Winger Lewis Neal is now back training and travelled with the squad on Friday.

He will have a fitness test before Irvine decides his starting line-up.

Irvine admits he has the sort of selection headaches all managers want with St Ledger, Matt Hill and Neil Mellor all pushing for a starting berth as his squad face three tough fixtures in eight days – Watford followed by home games against leaders Stoke on Tuesday and rejuvenated Crystal Palace next weekend.

He said: "It is absolutely terrific to have the luxury of players to choose from. That hasn't happened since I arrived.

"I only have 20 senior outfield players to select from and it only takes two or three injuries and a suspension before the squad is looking very light.

"We need a minimum of 14 outfield players for every game. But we don't travel with just 14 in case of illness or injury while we are away.

"So I always like to travel with 16 outfield players to be on the safe side.

"It is great that Lewis is back training, but whether it is a bit early for him I don't know. We will have a little look at him before we make that decision."

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