PNE were without several key players at Sheffield United

Preston North End manager Paul Heckingbottom hopes to have players back available at Sunderland on Tuesday night.

The Lilywhites lost 1-0 at Sheffield United on Saturday afternoon - the visitors were without a number of first team squad members at Bramall Lane. Preston, as expected, were missing Ali McCann, Jordan Storey, Mads Frokjaer, Jack Whatmough and Duane Holmes.

But, there was an added double blow with top scorer Milutin Osmajic and Brentford loan man Jayden Meghoma both absent from the match day squad in Sheffield. However, Heckingbottom said post-match the issues were not serious and that the pair could return at Sunderland on Tuesday night.

“It's an ongoing hip issue (with Osmajic) that we know and he manages, but just too sore,” said the Preston boss. “He's not been able to train. He's one of those, if we'd have had him, started him, had him on the bench, brought him on, he would be worse tomorrow for it.

“With us having a game Tuesday... he’ll have three days, we'll get as much treatment as we can until he gets everything sorted out. That's the plan. Hopefully, Jayden too. He rocked his bad ankle on the pitch Tuesday night when he came on.

“He continued with it and just a little bit sore as well. Mads, hopefully. It depends how he gets on in the next few days. It'll be similar to Ben (Whiteman). He's obviously not been out as long as Ben but he'll have had very little training, whereas Ben's had very little.

“We did a bit extra with him, or I did on Thursday. That's why I was coy the other day in the press, because I sort of knew where we were going and our hands were tied in lots of ways. But I knew we'd need Ben at some point in the game.

“Hopefully Jayden’s back and hopefully Milly's back. They're the ones who've been consistently playing, training and are up to speed, fully match fit. Mads, we'll have to see. Obviously, Ben will benefit from that 30 minutes. One or two are getting closer. We'll hopefully be in much better shape after the break.”

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