Preston North End players to be told their future this morning with Ryan Lowe urging Daniel Johnson to stay

North End have half a dozen first team players out of contract this summer, with further players in the youth team in a similar scenario, and as his first task after yesterday’s disappointing defeat to Sunderland, Lowe will be making clear his plans for the next campaign, who will be staying and going.

Daniel Johnson, Greg Cunningham, Ben Woodburn, Robbie Brady, Josh Onomah and Matthew Olosunde are all out contract this summer and whilst speculation is rife on whether some will remain at Deepdale at not, all will become clear soon with the North End boss set to sit down with all of his players to discuss where their futures may lie.

He said: “All of the players are in with me tomorrow morning, from eight o'clock onwards. We'll have some stuff that will go out, some offers, some released, whatever it may be. You'll probably know a little bit more towards the middle of the week.”

Johnson missed out on what could have been his final game in a North End shirt, after nine years with the club, on Monday due to injury.

A key player for Preston, the 30-year-old vice captain has been encouraged to continue on at Deepdale and enter his testimonial season by his manager but Lowe does admit that ultimately, the decision belongs solely to Johnson.

“It's unfair for me to speak. Me and DJ speak quite a bit, I do with all the players, but tomorrow (Tuesday) is the day where we discuss what is going on and what we want to do. We've said to DJ that we'd love to keep him. It'll be down to him. I'll speak to him tomorrow (Tuesday) and Peter (Ridsdale, director) will move on with his agent and we'll take it from there.

"He's been a fantastic servant to the football club and I'd love nothing better than for him to commit his future to the football club and see out his 10 years and have a testimonial and so on. That decision will be down to what he chooses to do as well.

“He pulled his thigh on Friday, he went for a scan on Saturday and he has a grade one, we were gutted obviously but we weren't going to risk him. Not a chance."