Preston North End goalkeeper is sidelined after knee surgery

Rudd jarred a knee in the warm-up ahead of last month’s 2-1 victory win against Bournemouth.

Mathew Hudson was drafted on to the bench at the Vitality Stadium and has been the cover keeper in the matches since then.

The injury is to the same knee Rudd damaged in January but not to the same extent.

North End head coach Frankie McAvoy told the Lancashire Post: “Dec has had a bit of surgery done on his knee.

“It’s disappointing to lose him but at the end of the day it needed to get done and that is why Mathew has been on the bench recently.

“The operation was a bit of a tidy-up so Dec won’t be out for too long.

“After he jarred it before the Bournemouth game he had it looked at and there was the opportunity to get it done quickly.

“The health and fitness of players is important and this was the right thing to do.”

Rudd injured the knee in January during a training session, the cartilage coming out place and jamming behind the kneecap.

That prompted PNE’s move to sign Daniel Iversen on loan from Leicester City.

After Iversen returned for a second loan on the eve of the campaign, Rudd started the season’s opener against Hull City at Deepdale.

He got a bang on the head early in that game and had to be substituted under concussion protocol.

Iversen has started all the league games since, with Rudd playing three Carabao Cup matches against Morecambe, Cheltenham and Liverpool.

Hudson will cover for Iversen over the next few weeks, an example of why clubs at this level carry a third keeper in the squad.

North End’s other senior keeper Connor Ripley is on a week-to-week emergency loan at Salford City.

Ripley, who is not in the 25-man squad at Deepdale, first joined Salford on October 16.

EFL rules permit the loan of a keeper outside of the transfer window in emergency cases if no senior cover is available.

Ripley’s time at Salford will put him in the shop window ahead of January.

The 28-year-old is out of contract next summer.

He could move in January on a permanent deal or a half-season loan.

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