'On him now' - Paul Heckingbottom issues Milutin Osmajic stance as Preston North End man to return from ban
PNE striker will return from his ban after Saturday’s game against Portsmouth
Preston North End boss Paul Heckingbottom has put the onus on Milutin Osmajic to prove he can be trusted.
After this weekend’s home game against Portsmouth, the Montenegrin will be back from his three-game ban for violent conduct. Osmajic headbutted Hull City midfielder John Lundstram right at the end of PNE’s 0-3 defeat at Deepdale.
The suspension took Osmajic’s total number of games missed - during Heckingbottom’s tenure at the club - to twenty. Until Thursday’s pre-match press conference, the North End boss had refrained from saying much at all on the striker.
Amid question marks over the forward’s future at Deepdale and where he stands, Heckingbottom confirmed Osmajic will be welcomed back into the fold after the visit of John Mousinho’s men.
“Yeah, he's our player, yeah, definitely,” Heckingbottom told the Lancashire Post. “I'm not going to say anything about our conversations. Milly's not a bad lad; Milly's a good lad. It is his professionalism that we have to manage.
“If he lived here, if we put a bed in here for him and I stayed with him 24 hours a day, he'd be fine. But listen, there's no way I'm going to do that, it's not my job. He can be loose, he can make silly decisions but he's not a bad person.
“He understands he’s let us down and it's on him now. There's only him who can do this. I'm not holding someone's hand to the detriment of the other 24 players. I'm going to focus on the other 24 players and then Milly's got to step up to our standards now.”
As far as learning goes the proof will be in the pudding when it comes to Osmajic. The 26-year-old has been banned for biting an opponent, alleged racist abuse and the aforementioned headbutt. Heckingbottom knows trust will have to be earned back but feels an element of care is needed, too.
“Yeah, but you also need help as a young person,” said Heckingbottom. “Emotional control... we're all different types of people. We can all lose our temper but if something is continuing to happen, there's got to be an understanding there that we are all different.
“And there's things that you guys aren't... you're on about things on the pitch but there's things that require a level of maturity where, if Milly can get that, develop that and understand that it is important, these other moments of recklessness will (then) get less and less.”