Early return to action for Preston North End midfielder Josh Harrop after injury to Ben Pearson

Harrop was summoned for duty after half an hour when his good pal Ben Pearson hobbled off with what could be a serious ankle injury.

Pearson twisted awkwardly on his left ankle and couldn’t put any weight on it as he was helped down the tunnel by medical staff.

For Harrop, it was his first slice of action since the end of October, his absence latterly due to a hamstring issue.

Harrop said: “No one wants to see their team-mate get an injury but you have to be ready to react straight away and get into the game.

“I think Pearo has rocked his ankle, the pitch moved under him a bit. I’m not sure what he has done.

“When I came on, it was my first game for a while and it just take some adjusting to.

“Match sharpness and awareness takes a bit of time to come back, you don’t just get it in one game.

“I just want to play and get appearances under my belt.

“I’ve had a bit of an injury lately, it was my hamstring tendon. I had an injection in it because there was a bit of fluid in there.”

Harrop joined the action with PNE leading 1-0 through Tom Barkhuizen’s 14th-minute header.

The Lilywhites were to end up chasing the game as the visitors equalised just after half-time and then took a 75th-minute lead.

It needed Jason McCarthy putting through his own net in the 87th minute to haul North End level.

After that, Emil Riis missed two big chances to grab a winner in stoppage time.

Harrop said: “I thought in the first half we were quite comfortable and controlled it.

“Coming out after half-time can always be a dangerous spell and Wycombe got the goal back then.

“Wycombe played to their strengths with long balls and it became very scrappy.

“We didn’t want the game to go that way, we wanted to have possession and look after the football.

“It went a bit ‘route one’ and fortunately we got the equaliser. We had chances to win it but they don’t always fall your way.”

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