Sepp van den Berg has returned to training with Schalke 04 after being out with an ankle ligament injury since October. The Preston North End young player of the year from 2022 is on loan at the Bundesliga club from Liverpool.
Sepp enjoyed a great 18 month spell at Deepdale after joining the club as a replacement for Ben Davies who went the other way. Initially playing as a right-back and then a right-wing-back under Alex Neil and Frankie McAvoy he settled as the right-sided centre-back in a back three under Ryan Lowe.
He clocked up 66 appearances overall for The Lilywhites in a loan spell that saw him mature as a defender and go from strength to strength. He was a fan favourite very early on and it was always going to be a sad day when he left the club. After his last game for the club at home to Middlesbrough, he was named Young Player of the Year, and there were two other loan players picking up awards that day too.
Daniel Iversen won Player of the Season whilst Cameron Archer picked up Goal of the Season for his winner at home to Blackpool. Preston really enjoyed the loan market last season, and are hoping for Tom Cannon or Liam Delap to deliver similarly in the second half of this season.
It seemed unlikely that van den Berg would extend his stay at Preston, with top flight clubs across Europe thought to be interested in him. At one stage it looked like he could be joining Bournemouth and then it was revealed he was very close to joining Blackburn Rovers on loan, and had even completed his medical and done his press photos.
Luckily Liverpool stalled on the deal after their own injury problems and that gave Schalke 04 the chance to eventually take him over to Germany.
The Dutch defender started four games for the newly promoted side before suffering a significant ankle injury, Sepp revealed he was worried about the long journey back to full fitness after having lost a lot of the muscle in his left leg.
He has now been pictured back in training though now, and hopefully he will be back on the pitch before too long. The 21-year-old really got what it meant to play for Preston North End, and that is always massively appreciated by the fans. He wore his heart on his sleeve, and Preston fans will hope he goes on to have a great career.
Although he had a strong start this season, Jordan Storey hasn’t quite matched van den Berg’s performances from last season in the same position.