He wasn’t in the squad against his former club on Saturday

Preston North End boss Paul Heckingbottom has clarified the reason behind club record signing Callum Lang’s absence against Portsmouth.

The 27-year-old was signed by North End from Pompey in a transfer deadline day swoop, after weeks of reports linking him with a move to Deepdale. Preston’s boss was asked about social media rumours of the two clubs agreeing Lang wouldn’t feature.

In response to that speculation, Heckingbottom told BBC Lancashire: “That’s not allowed.”

PNE’s boss added: “He’s just not been training. His last session was Wednesday last week with Portsmouth, because of how their training week is. The next time we saw him was Tuesday after a stressful few days.

“So, he just did the warm-up with us and a bit on his own. The only day he trained with us was Thursday and when he’s been out with a (hamstring) injury, I know if I had him on the bench I would’ve brought him on to the pitch. We’ve erred on the side of caution.”

Heckingbottom said Lang could return next week and later provided some further positive news regarding injuries, with some mid-term absentees possibly in line to come back against Watford.

Jebbo [Daniel Jebbison] felt his groin after Ipswich,” said Heckingbottom. “Fatigue but a slight strain in there. [Liam Lindsay] jarred his knee yesterday in training. We were a little bit worried with the nature [of it] so sent him for a scan, but pretty good news.

“I won’t be surprised if you see, obviously, Milly [Milutin Osmajic] next week, Langy, Jebbo, Linds, hopefully [Andrew] Hughes, potentially Dan [Iversen]. It’d be good to welcome them all back.

“Robbie [Brady]’s back in training the last couple of days now, which is good. Good players, they know what we’re about as well so it’d be nice to get them all back.”