Preston North End v Middlesbrough injury and team news as 8 out and 1 doubt

Both sides were victorious in midweek with the Lilywhites winning 2-1 against Watford on Tuesday thanks to a Milutin Osmajic brace. Boro ran out 2-0 winners against West Brom with Hayden Hackney and Ben Doak getting on the score sheet.

The Championship standings prior to the weekend action has North End in 16th and Middlesbrough in fifth. A whole ten points separate the two sides, but the two could not be separated when they met at the Riverside Stadium in mid-September. Tommy Conway opened the scoring for Middlesbrough but Mads Frokjaer-Jensen equalised just before half-time.

With all that in mind, here’s the latest team news from both camps.

Preston North End team news

Ben Whiteman is back in contention after serving a two-game ban. He picked up his 10th yellow card of the season against Oxford United which made him unavailable. North End's skipper must now avoid getting 15 yellow cards before the season is out or face a three-game ban.

Brad Potts is getting close to making a return to action. He's been missing for the last six matches with a knee injury, and he didn’t train in the build-up to the game against Luton Town last week. Paul Heckingbottom described him as ‘more or less there’ last week so don’t be surprised to see him named among the substitutes in the upcoming games.

Doubt: Brad Potts.

Middlesbrough team news

Emmanuel Latte Lath continues to be subject to immense transfer speculation, but Michael Carrick will continue to choose him, despite his uncertain future at the Riverside Stadium. Atlanta United made an offer of around £20m which would break the MLS transfer record but Boro have not yet made a decision on whether to accept it or not.

Middlesbrough this week signed Ryan Giles on a loan deal from Hull City until the end of the season. Giles has rejoined them for a second spell, having played under Carrick during the 2022/23 campaign, reaching the play-offs.

Tommy Conway is 'desperate' to return, but there is no timeframe as to when he will return. The striker has been sidelined with a hamstring injury since Boxing Day, and has been making positive strides during his recovery, but is not yet in full training.

"Tommy is a little bit further on,” said Carrick to The Northern Echo.

“We’ll have to see how quickly we want to get him back in. He’s really pushing and he’s desperate to get back, as you can imagine. We’ll make a call on that, but he’s certainly getting closer."

Captain Jonny Howson is also missing, and is slightly behind Conway in terms of where they're at with their respective injuries. Howson has been dealing with a calf problem, which has put him out since before Christmas.

Riley McGree and Anfernee Dijksteel will once again be missing. The pair picked up niggles during training last week, missing the games against Portsmouth and West Brom, and they aren’t expected to recover in time for Saturday. Sol Brynn, Alex Bangura, Darragh Lenihan and Tommy Smith are all long-term absentees and will also absent.

Out: Jonny Howson, Tommy Conway, Riley McGree, Anfernee Dijksteel, Sol Brynn, Alex Bangura, Darragh Lenihan, and Tommy Smith.