PNE make the trip to Bramall Lane this weekend

Preston North End have suffered another couple of injury blows for Saturday’s away clash at Sheffield United.

The Lilywhites lost captain Ben Whiteman and defender Lewis Gibson for their midweek trip to Birmingham City, which resulted in a 2-1 defeat. Those two joined Ali McCann, Callum Lang and Jamal Lewis on the sidelines, while Robbie Brady returned and played his third game of the campaign.

But, PNE have come out of the Blues contest with some more issues. The fact academy defender, Ed Nolan, has been recalled from his loan spell at Lancaster City suggests that defence may have been hit further. Odel Offiah, Liam Lindsay, Andrew Hughes, Pol Valentin and Andrija Vukcevic all started in midweek; Jordan Storey was an unused substitute.

On the latest injury wise, assistant Stuart McCall said: “Yeah, well, not many of them (Whiteman, Gibson, McCann, Lang) will be making it, that's for sure. There'll be a couple from the other night that, unfortunately, will miss out and then there's a couple tomorrow that will lead into the last minute.

“Not great news on the injury front, but it's always an opportunity to just focus on the ones that are there. But unfortunately, because of the quick turnover of games, there were a couple of knocks the other night and the lads haven't recovered. And there's a couple tomorrow that will have late fitness tests.

“Langy and Ali McCann have been joining in a little bit. They'll be joining all next week with a look to being involved in Southampton. We'd like to get them back involved. And the other two lads, yeah, they might be involved tomorrow. So, the four you mentioned, I would expect to see all of them on the park before the last kick of the game.”