Preston North End v Swansea City injury news as 6 ruled out with 1 doubt

Preston North End boss Ryan Lowe is hopeful of having Northern Ireland international Ali McCann back available for today’s Championship meeting with Swansea City.

The midfielder missed the win over Sheffield Wednesday last weekend with a hamstring issue but the North End boss is not expecting any further injury boosts for the Deepdale fixture.

Ben Whiteman is back in training but not ready to return to play while Emil Riis hopes to be back in action sometime in September if his recovery continues as planned after sustaining a knee injury back in January.

Layton Stewart is a doubt as he continues to build up his physicality following his arrival from Liverpool this summer. Robbie Brady is expected to be back after the international break while Calvin Ramsay and Ched Evans are expected to remain out.

“I’m glad to have Ali back after his little knock and it’s nice to see Whitey back on the grass with us today. Our target was for next week (with Whiteman) and he’s above that at the moment,” said Lowe.

“There’s still a lot of work to do, but it’s just nice to have him back on the grass, with the lads, because Ben is one of those players who wants to be in and around it. We’ll see how he recovers and then just keep building him up.

“The rest will probably be after the international break and the quicker we get them back, the better we will be. Robbie is on the grass now. He’s fine, but we’ve taken a bit longer with him because it was the third time he’d had a calf issue and you don’t want that continuing. If you asked Rob now, he’s ready to play Saturday, but in mine and the physio’s eyes he is not.”

It has been a tough week for Swansea who have lost Joel Piroe to Championship rivals Leeds United while Nathan Wood is strongly linked with a move to Southampton.

Michael Duff’s side have no new injury concerns with Josh Ginnelly the only doubt after suffering from an illness earlier in the week.