Ryan Lowe suggests Emil Riis’ return has been delayed after Preston North End injury

Preston North End striker Emil Riis will be back available ‘in the next six weeks’ says manager Ryan Lowe.

The Danish forward had been eyeing a return to action against Plymouth Argyle this weekend, having suffered a serious knee injury at Stoke City back in January. Riis has been working his way back ever since and the signs were encouraging last month, with the Dane said to be looking ‘bigger and stronger’.

That would’ve been a big boost to PNE, who have had to rely on Will Keane as their only available striker in the first five games of the season. The number seven could now be set for a spell on the sidelines, after injuring himself on international duty for the Republic of Ireland. Keane left the Irish camp early, after being forced off against France.

Ched Evans also remains absent, meaning new signing Milutin Osmajic could end up debuting against Plymouth should PNE get him flown over to England in time. Any hope of a return for Riis has seemingly been crushed though, with North End boss Lowe telling talkSPORT on Wednesday morning that Riis is still not ready.

When discussing PNE being top of the table and the potential to spend money in January, Lowe said: “Well to be honest we’ve just spent a couple of quid. Fair play to the owner Craig Hemmings, the family and Peter Ridsdale to get some money. We’ve got Mads Frokjaer from a team in Denmark and we’ve just signed Milutin Osmajic from Cadiz, in Spain. So, we’ve spent a couple of quid.

“We signed Will Keane from Wigan and got a couple of lads on loan as well. But, listen, if you are around there in January what you don’t want to do is go and spend millions of pounds which we haven’t quite got; it could disrupt it. Emil Riis is going to be back in the next six weeks and Ched Evans is going to be back in the next six weeks. So, hopefully, if we are still around then those two coming back can give us a springboard to keep going.”