Preston North End and Northern Ireland midfielder Ali McCann discusses first long term injury of his career

McCann suffered a tear in his thigh during the home game against Luton Town in February and, at the time, was ruled out for the rest of the season.

But the diminutive force in the centre of the park managed to get himself fit again and was involved in the final three games of the campaign.

It was the first injury of note for McCann during his time at Deepdale, and indeed his career, so it took some getting used to.

Speaking prior to PNE’s last game of the season against Sunderland, he said: “This one I've just had is the first longer term one that I've ever had, so it's kind of new to me. It's really frustrating seeing the lads going out training, you're in the gym sitting at the window doing your work. It's frustrating but it could have been a lot worse, it was only about eight to 10 weeks. I'm glad I'm over it now and I'm feeling good.

“You can always look back and say I could have done this but it's just one of those things that happens, you can't really avoid it to be fair. It's going to happen to everyone at some point. At the end of the day, you can't really avoid it.

"Once it's done you just know it's going to be a good couple of weeks sitting doing nothing which is frustrating but the physios have been great. They've made it as seamless as possible so far. I've been feeling good for the last couple of weeks.”

The 23-year-old missed 11 games during his time sidelined but in that run Preston picked up 20 points from a possible 33, losing only to Middlesbrough and Millwall.

So with North End setting themselves up for one final tilt at the play-offs as the season drew to a close, at least McCann could enjoy watching his teammates, even if he was forced to be a spectator...

“I hate watching it,” he said. “I'm more nervous watching them than I am playing in them. I can't affect anything. I'm tapping my feet and stuff like that, I'm probably not very fun to be around!

"But the times that I was watching it, especially the home games, we went on a good little run so it was quite nice.”