Preston North End manager offers injury update on key defender after he missed derby defeat to Blackpool

Hughes, having started against Huddersfield Town just a few days earlier, was left out of the squad entirely at Bloomfield Road due to an injury picked up in training.

Thankfully for PNE, Liam Lindsay was able to make a return from an injury of his own, a hamstring strain, to play the full 90 minutes.

Greg Cunningham on the other half was only able to play just over an hour before having to be withdrawn, that due to illness which has been an issue for North End over the last few weeks.

Lowe said” “We lost Hughes in training which is a bit disappointing because he's going to be out for I don't know how long now.

"It's his thigh and he's had a scan on it and it could be anything, it could be five days, it could be 10 days, it could be two weeks - we don't know.

"He was actually feeling alright but we sent him for a scan because our physio knew he wasn’t going to be alright. He'll tell me he's okay just because he wants to play. We'll see how he presents over the next four days.

“We got Lindsay back so we ended up rushing him back, obviously he got through the game but we're going to have to manage it.

"Greg had been up all night with a bug but he wanted to play in the derby. We got him to 60 minutes and then he was just going under and we had to take him off to get Bambo Diaby on and push Liam out there.

"You have to adapt to these things you don't know what's going to happen overnight if people get sick or injuries. They happen, it's one of those things.”

Lowe however is not using injuries to cover up the defeat to Blackpool.

He said: “It's not ideal but we don't make excuses, it is what it is. We lost a game off football against our local rivals. Did we deserve to lost the game of football? Probably not but they scored the goals and we didn't. We have another game to put it right.”