Preston North End striker Louis Moult closing in on a return to full fitness

The 28-year-old has now not kicked a competitive ball for more than a year after suffering a serious knee injury away at Swansea City last August.

Moult ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament after just 26 minutes of the clash at the Liberty Stadium – a match which North End went on to lose 3-2.

Arriving at Deepdale in January 2018, the ex-Motherwell man had an indifferent start to his North End career.

In the 18 months prior to the start of last season, he featured just 16 times from the start, scoring seven goals.

However, the feeling was he had got the bit between his teeth at the beginning of the last campaign – scoring and impressing in a 3-0 home win against Wigan.

Frustratingly, Moult’s progress was curtailed when he suffered the cruel injury in the very next game and it has been a long, rocky road back to fitness.

Having initially had an operation to repair his damaged ACL, Moult’s recovery suffered a blow when he had to undergo surgery for a second time after feeling some discomfort in his knee when did some running.

Fortunately, Moult now appears to be making great strides forward and could be back training among his team-mates by the end of this month.

“Losing Louis last year was a big blow for us and himself,” Preston boss Alex Neil told PNEFC.net.

“I thought he had found a bit of form before he got injured and I thought he was becoming a really good link for us.

“Unfortunately that injury caused him a lot of problems but he’s much more comfortable. Two operations later he seems to be in a much better place physically and he’s happy in that he’s not getting any adverse effects.

“We’ve been there before when someone’s had a bad injury.

“It can feel like there’s no light at the end of the tunnel and I can assure you that even just going out on to the grass to do a bit of running is a nice feeling when you’ve been out for so long.”

Meanwhile, North End will discover their Carabao Cup opponents this morning.

The draw for the first round will take place at 10am, with matches involving Championships sides scheduled to take place a week earlier at the end of August to avoid clashing with the international break.

PNE are also expected to announce their pre-season friendly fixture list today as they work towards the Championship’s opening day on September 12.