Norwich City sweat on key man for Preston North End trip as nine players may miss out
PNE host the Canaries on Saturday afternoon
Preston North End return to Deepdale this weekend to host Norwich City in the final game before Christmas.
Both sides head into the contest on the back of 2-1 wins, with the Lilywhites edging Oxford United away from home and Phillipe Clement’s men beating Southampton on home soil. Norwich remain 23rd in the table but have picked up eight points from the six games overseen by Clement - a sign of improvement after nine from the previous 15.
The two squads have been hit badly in their respective injury departments, over the first half of the season. North End are starting to welcome bodies back but the Canaries remain without several first team players, albeit Harry Darling, Mathias Kvistgaarden and Jose Cordoba were back in the squad last time out.
Joint-top scorer Josh Sargent missed out with concussion but Kenny McClean was fit enough to feature, amid concerns over his hip. Sargent will now need to go through protocol around concussion through the week. The American was prohibited from competitive action for six days after the setback.
Still sidelined for Norwich are Shane Duffy, Jeffrey Schlupp, Ante Crnac, Papa Amadou Diallo, Liam Gibbs and Mirko Topic. Full-backs Jack Stacey and Lucien Mahovo are back in training after respective hamstring and quad issues. Neither were fit enough to play a part last weekend but Stacey is said to be pushing for a return.
North End linked man back involved
During the summer transfer window, Jacob Wright was mentioned in the media as a possible target for Preston. In the end, he completed a reported £2.3million move to Norwich - having impressed while on loan from Manchester City last season.
Under old boss Liam Manning, the midfielder struggled for game time. Wright has started the last two games and came off the bench in the two prior to that. He only featured on five occasions in the 15 league games of Manning’s tenure.
“I'm very positive about Jacob from the start,” said Clement. “A young player, but with a lot of game intelligence, understanding where to find space. He is also very, very focused in all the meetings that we do about our game and how we want to play. So, he's showing really good stuff for the team.”
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