Preston North End manager provides key update on Tottenham Hotspur's Troy Parrott, Robbie Brady and Sean Maguire returns

Troy Parrott injured his hamstring in the win over Norwich City – in the process of scoring his first league goal for the club – back in October, whilst Maguire and Brady both picked up injuries over the World Cup break.

On Monday, PNE were without Jordan Storey who had a tight muscle and Brad Potts was limited to a place on the bench due to a foot injury.

They could be boosted soon however with the return of most of their Irish contingent, although Lowe is still waiting on the go-ahead from Parrott’s parent club Tottenham Hotspur who have been involved throughout his recovery

He said: “It's tough, isn't it? You look around after the West Brom game and Matt Jackson [physio] is telling me about Jordan and then Pottsy. But it's football, you have to deal with injuries.

"We've got them now but I'd rather have to deal with them now than the back end of the season. We've done well but ultimately at some stage in the season you're going to get injuries.

"We have Robbie and Seani who were with us at Stoke, Troy is down at Tottenham and we'll hopefully get the good news on him.

"The two of them will be back in and then hopefully Seani will be back in. We'll have to see how Emil is. Once we get a fully fit squad back it looks better all round.”

PNE managed to stop the rot on Monday as their run of three striaght defeats ended with a win over Stoke City.

Despite Lowe’s goal for his side being to maintain their place in the top 10, it’s not of his current concern and is instead keen to prevent expectations getting too high.

He said: “I'm not really concerned about that at the moment, I just want to collect as many points as we can. This is where we have to play it down, we need the media's help because the expectations probably went too high and then we've fallen short and everyone is like 'ah!' but it's not fair, because we are trying our hardest with what we've got and who we are.

"We all want to get some greatness and some joy, whatever it is. Ultimately we have to be patient with it.”