Jordan Storey will miss Wednesday’s trip to Bristol City – and that leaves Ryan Lowe with a dilemma as he looks to replace his right-sided centre back.
Preston headed away to Carrow Road on Saturday afternoon, taking on promotion-chasing Norwich City.
Josh Sargent’s early goal threatened to make it a long afternoon for North End but Ryan Lowe’s men showed immense character.
Emil Riis scored either side of half time to put Preston 2-1 up and Gabriel Sara’s equaliser still couldn’t prevent North End.
Troy Parrott won it as his deflected strike beat Tim Krul at his near post, sending the travelling North End faithful back to Lancashire in great spirits.
The Championship season is relentless though and whilst Preston can celebrate this win, the attention will quickly turn to another long trip in midweek.
Bristol City will be the opponents on Wednesday night in a rescheduled fixture from back in September.
North End will hope that a bug that swept through the camp in recent days will have cleared up by then, but defender Jordan Storey won’t be involved.
Storey picked up his fifth yellow card of the season against Norwich on Saturday, meaning he must now serve a one-game ban.
Lowe is unlikely to change shape for Wednesday’s game so Storey will need to be replace as the right-sided centre back in Preston’s back three.
It would be assumed that Bambo Diaby will be the man to come in with the Senegalese defender re-signed over the summer to play as cover for Storey.
Yet Diaby hasn’t played a single minute of first-team action this season, not even in the cup competitions.
The 24-year-old has struggled with injuries this term and was only promoted to the bench against Norwich because Brad Potts pulled out before kick off.
It’s a big ask for Diaby to come straight in for Championship action but he may well be ended to step up.
Patrick Bauer is right-footed but may not quite have the mobility to play on the right side of the back three.
There aren’t many other options for Lowe to considered unless he goes with an all-left-footed back three, so Diaby looks set to be catapulted into the starting XI on Wednesday.