Preston North End return to action on Saturday afternoon, hosting Hull City at Deepdale in a must-win game.
Defeat at home to Millwall has dented North End’s hopes of reaching the playoffs, and whilst we still sit in the top six, Preston need to hit back against a Hull side who have won just once in the league in 2020.
The Tigers have struggled since selling Jarrod Bowen and Kamil Grosicki, and Preston will be expected to go and beat the Tigers this weekend to get back on track.
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Darnell Fisher may return from injury and Billy Bodin isn’t too far away, but one player who will absolutely miss out is midfielder Tom Bayliss.
The summer signing from Coventry City has yet to start a Championship game since his £1.2million move in August, with Alex Neil taking a patient approach with the youngster.
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Neil recently claimed that Bayliss had really ramped up his performances in training, and was closing in on more playing time – but then picked up an ankle injury last month.
Today, Neil has told Lancs Live that Bayliss has now undergone surgery on his ankle after a consultation with a surgeon, as North End had hoped to patch the injury up, but he will now likely miss the rest of the season as he attempts to return for pre-season, meaning Bayliss will end the season with no league starts to his name.
“Tom’s had surgery now,” said Neil. “What we did is, we had a look at his ankle because it looked a bit lax. We were hoping, sometimes it strengthens itself and then it turns out that you don’t need surgery.”
“We got the surgeon to go and have a look if it was okay to just patch it up and be three or four weeks. But when he’s had a look it needed fixing, so he’s fixed it and he’ll be on the mend now but I doubt we’ll see him again this season,” he added.