'Few weeks' - Preston North End dealt injury blow but fears calmed over Aston Villa loan star

Preston North End striker Will Keane has been dealt an injury blow, says manager Paul Heckingbottom.

The Lilywhites were without the number seven once again, for Saturday’s 0-0 draw at Burnley. Keane had sat out the midweek win over Watford, having started the defeat at Millwall a few days prior. The centre-forward missed Middlesbrough away in mid-September, but returned to the squad one week later. But, he is now set for a spell on the sidelines.

Post-match on Saturday, Heckingbottom said: “He is going to be out. We have had that looked at, so he is going to be out for a few weeks. Sam (Greenwood) is back now, who we missed for three games. It (the injury to Keane) has just coincided with Milly being out. That is another reason it made sense for Milly to play on the Wednesday night, to allow Emil to play 90 here.

“But, Milly deserved it. He has responded really well since we’ve come in and I’ve really liked working with him. I have enjoyed what he has shown us on the pitch. Obviously, he needs to learn from what happened in the Blackburn game, because we all suffer for that now. But, in terms of the football and what we’ve seen working with him, we’ve really liked it.”

On Riis’ shift at Turf Moor, Heckingbottom added: “He worked his socks off. It was tough. As it went on as well, and the people around him with cramp. We thought about bringing Layton (Stewart) on. But, it would’ve been tough for Layton to come in and get up to the speed of the game that quickly, at any point, if I’d have brought him on. With Sam missing, Will missing and Milly missing, he had to dig deep and give us 90 minutes.”

There was some worry in the closing stages at Burnley when Man of the Match, Kaine Kesler-Hayden, looked to pull up with a hamstring injury. However, after the Aston Villa loan man went to ground, he managed to continue and run again, before making way. Heckingbottom assured there was nothing serious on that front.

“Just cramping, yeah,” said Heckingbottom. “Robbie (Brady) cramp, Hughesy cramp. Which, is to be expected - we played Wednesday night and the outputs in that game were fantastic as well, as they were today. But, I think it is a good illustration to us and the players about how we want to play. And, the type of performance we want to deliver. It’s hard work; football shouldn’t be easy.”