Preston North End injury news for Bristol City as Milutin Osmajic situation addressed amid FA hearing

Preston North End boss Paul Heckingbottom has calmed fears over Lewis Gibson’s injury at Derby County.

The defender, who has started every league game so far, had to be withdrawn towards the latter stages of the 1-0 away win. Gibson suffered a neck issue and Heckingbottom wasn’t sure whether the 25-year-old would be fine to face the Robins.

On Thursday, he said: “He's trained, which is good. It wasn't a bang to the head, but his neck just went in spasm, more or less straight away. You never know how they're going to react, but it settled down straight away with a bit of treatment. So yeah, he's fit.”

Elsewhere in the PNE squad, the manager’s options were boosted last weekend but he remained without a handful of senior players. Brad Potts was said to be the next in line for a return, having not featured yet this season.

On the number 44, Heckingbottom said: “Pottsy’s back in. Obviously, we're not going to use him but he's back in training, which is great. He's done a hell of a lot. He could’ve probably been back in training prior to this.

“But with him having this length of time out and then that little, not a relapse, but similar injury, there's been lots of consultation going on. Just changing the approach slightly and building him and certain parts of his body up, before he's dropped back in again.

“Just giving that extra bit of time, which we've been able to allow him. But we do want him back involved and being able to use him. Now it's a case of as many training minutes as possible, some football in the games that we've got.

“Whether we do arrange him behind closed doors, whether we use the reserve 21s fixtures... but in the meantime, while he's doing that, there's nothing to say when we get him to that point that we can't be using him in the squad for limited minutes.”

As confirmed recently, Robbie Brady will be out for a prolonged period following surgery on his calf. Summer recruit Jordan Thompson was said to be weeks rather than months, but what about Will Keane?

Heckingbottom said: “Yeah, so he's similar to Potts in terms of stripping it all back and starting again, in terms of his rehab when he got re-injured. But there's nothing in terms of wrapping him in cotton wool; he's fit when he's fit.

“That's it. It's the worst thing to be injured when you're a player because you can't do anything about it. If he was on the training pitch, he'd be trying his best to show me he should be playing. Right now, he can't.

“I've been there and I don't want the players to ever think that when they're injured, they're not welcome round here - because you can feel a bit of a spare part. There's no pressure, when you're getting things you can't shake off, to play when you're not fit.

“There's nothing you can do about it. You're fit when you're fit. As long as you're giving everything every day and you might have to make changes in your lifestyle and look at things like that when things aren't working.

“As long as you're doing all these things, and being as professional as you can to get back on the grass, then that's all you can ask. It's frustrating for all of us but Keano, he'll just be fit when he's fit.”

Heckingbottom on Osmajic pre-Bristol City

The striker’s FA hearing has taken place this week, so the front man has missed a couple of training days ahead of the Robins clash. Osmajic was back in the starting XI last time out at Derby, after a few weeks injured with a rib issue.

Heckingbottom said: “Yes, this is the first day we've had him back. The last few weeks have not been great for him in terms of training minutes. If he wasn't such a fit lad, we wouldn't have started him in the last game.

“But likewise, it made sense to start him and see how he was. Against Wrexham, although he wasn't injured at that point, when you bring someone on and have to take them off, it has a knock-on effect for the rest.

“We wanted to make sure that we didn't give ourselves that problem starting, but he was fine. That was on very little training minutes and then obviously, he's not had any training minutes until today. It's something we've got to look at for this game and the next two.”

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