Paul Heckingbottom spoke to the media on Friday afternoon ahead of the trip to Sheffield United

Preston North End have been dealt an injury blow to midfielder Ali McCann.

The Northern Ireland was forced off in the second half of Tuesday’s goalless draw against Swansea City, due to a calf issue. McCann is now set for a spell on the sidelines with manager Paul Heckingbottom confirming that the number eight won’t feature until after the international break.

On a more positive note, club captain Ben Whiteman is back in the fold ahead of Saturday’s trip to Sheffield United - one of his former clubs. The skipper has been out for around six weeks with a nasty ankle blow but is in full training again. PNE’s boss was coy over Mads Frokjaer and Stefan Thordarson’s chances.

“Ali’s out,” said Heckingbottom. “A muscle problem, so he’ll be after the break. The rest, you’ll have to see tomorrow. I have not named a team today. I am giving nothing away. You will have to wait and see tomorrow. He (Whiteman) has been dropping in and out for the last few days.

“The bits where he's in a bit more control and then the last couple of days he's trained properly, done a little bit extra with me yesterday - just to try and top up his football that he's missing. So yeah, he's missed quite a bit of time but he's had two days training now.

“He's happy where he is in terms of his ankle. He's getting more and more comfortable with it every day, so that's good news. (Jordan Storey) is a week or two behind Ben in terms of his progression. We've not seen anything of Jordan training with us or anything.”

On the boost of having his captain back, Heckingbottom added: “Yeah, good. We've been struggling of late in terms of the injuries. Just everything. I say it all the time, I want everyone fit. One of the questions you always get asked when everyone's fit is ‘How do you pick your team?’

“I’d take that every day of the week for lots of reasons. Imagine the work you can do in the week, the quality of your training all week, how you're preparing and the consistent messages you're getting to people when you're missing them for months at a time.

“They feel like they're falling behind and the team's progressed. You're having to recap things. You could see when we had all those options from the bench... it didn’t half help us get over the line in some games. I don't think it's a coincidence we had some really comfortable wins in those times.”

“That’s been a pattern that’s been flagged up.”

The Preston boss, a period towards the end of 2024 aside, has rarely had the luxury of a fully fit squad to pick from. It’s something previous manager Ryan Lowe spoke a lot about looking into and whether PNE could do anything differently. Heckingbottom has pinpointed one thing that might improve fortunes.

“Yeah, I was looking at it,” said Heckingbottom. “Robbie (Brady) with his ankle and his ribs, Ben with his ankle, Jordan with his ankle, Duane (Holmes) with his broken leg. It's the soft tissue injuries that you always think you can do more on; there's been a pattern here and we've just been speaking about it.

“This time of year it's injuries like Ali's calf. Between December and March the pitches get heavier. That's been a pattern over the last few years that's been flagged up. So, it's things like that that you're trying to alter. The other bit is one or two players have had bad luck this season. But that's part and parcel.

“The injury situation is not going to get any better, believe you me. The way the game is going, the amount of games, the nature of the way the games are played now and what's expected from a player. I think substitutes are going to become even more important and that's back to the squad and how we use it.”

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