Ryan Lowe confirms injury blow to key Preston North End man - set to miss Southampton and QPR

Preston North End midfielder Ali McCann could miss the rest of the season with an injury sustained against Huddersfield Town, in midweek.

The Northern Ireland international - who has played a key role for the Lilywhites in recent weeks - was absent for Saturday’s crunch clash with Norwich City. McCann’s injury was yet another blow to PNE’s midfield, with Ben Whiteman out while Ryan Ledson and Alan Browne were only just back from their respective issues.

Post-match, manager Ryan Lowe said: “Yeah, I am disappointed for Ali. I said, hopefully someone is looking down on us to help us - not hinder us. He has (been a star man of late), but I thought Jack (Whatmough) was fantastic. He (McCann) has got a thigh strain, which could be two, three or four weeks, depending. I’m not sure how he’s going to cope for the next few games.

“I’d say he’ll be unavailable for Southampton and QPR. Leicester is ten days on from then, so I don’t know if it’ll be Leicester or West Brom. We will just keep monitoring him and see how he is. He felt something in the last game and we had him scanned, because we were cautious. He said he felt fine and up to now, he still feels okay.

“But, sometimes you scan the players and the results show loads of different things in his body. For him to play the games he has - away with Northern Ireland and then competitive, against good teams in the Championship, running around the way he does is credit to him. But, it has obviously cost us a little bit in terms of the injury.”