Preston North End injury news for Ipswich Town with boost over AFC Bournemouth man on cards
PNE face Ipswich Town at Deepdale on Saturday afternoon
Preston North End boss Paul Heckingbottom could welcome Daniel Jebbison back into the fold this weekend.
The Lilywhites have been unable to utilise the AFC Bournemouth loan striker so far, due to an ankle injury sustained while training with a private coach. However, the Canada international is not far away ahead of this weekend’s home encounter with relegated Ipswich Town.
Elsewhere, Mads Frokjaer is touch and go with his groin issue but unlikely to be risked by Heckingbottom. Robbie Brady, Jordan Thompson, Brad Potts and Will Keane are all still out for Saturday - the North End manager said they are ‘progressing’, when asked if all are on track with their recovery.
“Jebbo is probably the closest,” said Heckingbottom, on his team news. “Mads is feeling good but I'm not going to risk him. Jebbo’s injury is slightly different. If it's not getting worse and he's comfortable, then we'll 100% involve him - even if it's for 10 minutes at the end. If it helps us, it helps us so we'll look at that.
“But if he can't perform to the level that we need, then we won't use him. I think one thing we have to be really good at and clever at is having the strongest, or most effective, XI on the pitch at any one time. That can be through energy, running power, tactically - individual players who we think can match up well against theirs - and we only get the opportunity to do that if we've got them all fit.
“I've just been chatting with Mads today. He's really comfortable where he is and happy where he is but muscle injuries, you can see he was in a great place. I think he did the right thing at Barrow. He pulled up and we took him off straight away so fortunately, it was just a couple of weeks injury. But like I said, we'll see where he is. There's no point in me taking risks with him now, unless we're 100% sure.”
On facing Ipswich, Heckingbottom said: “I think it'll be different (to Leicester). I've seen both (of their) first two league games - really challenging for them against two good teams. Hopefully, we can make it as challenging as what they've had, cause them problems and stand up to what is a very good team. I think they're a lot of people's favourites and I think that's a lot to do with Kieran - the manager has done it before - and how they recruited.
“A lot of the squad is still together. They seem to have had a good plan when they went up into the Premier League and likewise, they sold to give them that opportunity to build again and go again. I don't think they'll have finished yet in these last 10 games, so I only expect them to get stronger between now and the end of the window. And rightly so, they're fancied by a lot of people.”
North End head into the game on the back of an impressive 2-1 win at home to Leicester City, with it four points from PNE’s first two matches. Heckingbottom has previously highlighted how performances tend to get highlighted more if there is the result to go with it, but was last weekend as pleased as he’s been with a display?
“I have to be careful what I say,” said Heckingbottom. “I don't want to seem disrespectful to Leicester at all; I think we played them at a good time. I think if you look back at the game and the chances, and say you look back at the stats from it, people would say it's a comfortable victory for us against a team that's just come down, which is great. Really, really good. So from that aspect I'd say yeah, definitely.
“But I think there's reasons for that. How we set up, how they set up, where they are in their transition at the minute. I'm trying to give them credit while also saying I don't think they're where they want to be at the minute. We've played against teams at the top of their game, put in real performances and only got a point out of it when we should have got more.
“That was a real good, entertaining game to watch. We were really pleased with what we did; they'll be disappointed with some things they did. The match-up I felt made for a really good game and probably a really entertaining game, so I think that's probably the best way to answer that.”
On the atmosphere inside Deepdale on the day and the boost it gives him moving forward, the manager added: “Yeah, and I hope there's more to come. I really do because we've had little moments, haven't we? Whether it's been cup runs, cup games, Premier League teams coming here, us performing really well against, I don't know, big teams with big support, like Leeds coming to our place, things like that.
“But we want that to be the norm because, like I said, there's going to be games this season where we need the fans to get us over the line. We need the fans to make the impact within the game. So, yeah, I want that to be something we work on together to make sure we can't be underestimated. And I guarantee you the fans enjoyed that game... you're probably asking that question because they said it was one of the best. But, they've played their part in that and that's important, definitely.”