The durable winger must go all the way back to March, 2004 – as a Rotherham United player – for the last time he sat out a match for fitness reasons.

"I don't want to tempt fate, but I seem to have been pretty lucky with knocks," he said as he looked forward to playing his 200th game without a scratch on Saturday.

"Every player gets a spell when they have an injury. I had six months out with a knee operation when I was 21 and maybe I got all my bad luck out of the way at once.

"I suppose it's quite an achievement to go so long without a
problem. I'm pretty proud of that – it's a nice record to have."

Sedgwick has never failed to pass muster since joining North End in November 2004.

Click the play button above to hear Brian Ellis talk to Chris Sedgwick

The 27-year-old has missed appearing in only nine fixtures in all competitions for the club.

Eight of those were as an unused substitute, left on the bench. The other was a one-match ban this term for picking up five yellow cards.

Out of a possible 177 games for Preston he has appeared in 168. And 155 of those have been in the starting line-up.

Despite all the trials and tribulations of this season, Sedgwick has started 36 of the club's 42 Championship games, a total equalled by Callum Davidson and bettered by only keeper Andrew Lonergan with 39.

He has been missing from only five in league and cup, one through that suspension at Norwich in early February and four left kicking his heels on the bench.

"It hasn't been the easiest of seasons – I've been involved in better," he said as he prepared to face Barnsley on Saturday

Shame

"But while the first half was not very pleasant, things have really improved since the turn of the year and we are all enjoying it.

"In fact, the way we are playing at the moment, it will be a shame when the season has to end."

Preston hit manager Alan Irvine's target of 54 points last weekend at Queens Park Rangers and that should now be enough to guarantee Championship football at Deepdale next season.

But, just like his boss, Sedgwick refuses to accept survival is
inevitable until it is mathematically impossible for North End to be sucked back into the abyss.

"We have had a chat about it and we know what we want to get out of the last four matches," he said.

"We want to stay unbeaten – even win every game if we could.

"It would be easy for the season to fizzle out, but none of us want that to happen.

"We are delighted with the way the results have been going recently and we want to keep that momentum going right to the end of the season and on into the next one.

"We aren't completely safe yet. We need another few points because it is that tight down there.

"There are some big teams down there and a few have got to play each other still. But we have to make sure we aren't dragged back down into the mix.

"This division is so crazy this year that someone could go down with a lot of points and someone could go up with a lower total than usual."

Read more from Chris Sedgwick, including him talking about the 'bad days' before christmas, only in Friday's Lancashire Evening Post.

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