Preston are back in action this weekend, taking on Blackburn Rovers at Deepdale.
North End drew 1-1 with Leeds United on Tuesday night, with Tom Barkhuizen’s opener cancelled out by Eddie Nketiah’s late equaliser. Taking a point wasn’t a bad result, but did hurt a little having been in the lead.
Alex Neil will be hoping for better this weekend, and it’s another big game at Deepdale. Blackburn Rovers are the visitors, giving Neil a chance to extend his impressive record in local derbies.
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He will have to do it without Josh Harrop though. The playmaker missed Tuesday’s game with Leeds, and fans have been waiting for news on his situation ahead of the game with Rovers.
Now, Neil has admitted that Harrop has tweaked his hamstring, and had been playing with the knock in the last few games. The 23-year-old came on for 32 minutes at Reading last weekend, but is now facing a spell on the sidelines.
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Neil admitted that the scan on Harrop’s hamstring is ‘not great’, and he’ll now be out for ‘a few weeks’. The thing is, we’ve heard this before from North End, with vague recovery dates put on injuries, so we’ll have to see how this one goes.
There is one piece of positive news though, as Billy Bodin returns to action. The Welsh winger fits into that bracket of a player who had an issue and then hasn’t been seen for weeks.
Bodin hasn’t been seen at all since the 2-0 win over Brentford on September 14th, meaning he’s now missed the last seven games in all competitions.
Bodin has certainly been missed, and Neil has now confirmed that Bodin is training today as he attempts to make his comeback, and could be involved against Rovers.
We would guess that Bodin is a likely substitute, but with Alex Neil, you just never know. Andre Green came in from the cold in midweek, meaning he’s pushing for playing time too, so Neil has options out wide if Bodin doesn’t make it.