Alex Neil admits Preston North End may need to look for a centre-back in January

Bauer’s season was prematurely ended in midweek as he suffered a serious Achilles injury.

That leaves North End with three senior centre-halves available for the remaining months, having just got one of them, Ben Davies, back after several weeks out himself.

Neil feels there has to be consideration over buying a replacement but admits there are difficulties.

He said: “It would have to be an option. Whichever way you look at it, going forward you always need four centre-backs.

“Each one of our four centre-backs have played a significant part in this season already. Certainly with the games we’ve got coming up and the way that things are, it’s not enough.

“We’ve gone into games with no fit full-backs in the entire club and no fit back-ups for the full-backs who aren’t even full-backs.

“My immediate attention is the next game against Wycombe, albeit in the background we’ll be working hard to get targets lined up.

“The difficulty you’ve also got is affordability after that. In terms of who we can recruit, where we can get them from and if they’re of the relevant quality.

“There’s no point in bringing a body in if they’re not going to be able to contribute.”

Bauer will soon be under the knife, signalling the start of his recovery. The German can only curse his luck due to the innocuous nature of the incident, with no one around him at the time.

For Neil, it is a build up of the season and no fault of the consummate pro. He said: “We got a scan just to confirm what we knew he’d done initially. He’s done his Achilles which is a long road back for any player.

“Naturally, everyone is a bit shocked and gutted for Patrick because he’s been so important to us. We want a speedy recovery for him. We’ve got his surgery booked in for Monday to get it fixed. 

“The difficulty we’ve got is when we miss our key players, it becomes tough for us. Pat’s been a key player for us but to be honest that is secondary to the fact that it’s a severe injury for a really good professional.

“Patrick looks after himself, he trains hard, sleeps well, eats well. He does all the right things and there is nothing you can say.

“You can’t legislate for it –there was nobody near him, nobody kicks him, it wasn’t an action where somebody makes a tackle and it’s an impact injury. He’s probably just overloaded it.

“If you look at the size of Patrick and the amount of games he’s turned out, it’s just took its toll.”