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Jamal Lewis | Camera Sport
PNE are back at Deepdale this weekend for the visit of Wrexham
Preston North End defender Jamal Lewis will be out for the next fortnight at least.
The Lilywhites snapped the Northern Irishman up on a free transfer at the end of October. But, in his sixth appearance - away to Sheffield Wednesday last time out - Lewis tweaked his hamstring shortly after entering the action.
He is unlikely to play any part in the games prior to Christmas but Heckingbottom will welcome two players back on Saturday: loan midfielder Harrison Armstrong and left back Andrija Vukcevic.
Speaking pre-match at Euxton, Heckingbottom said: “Jamal will be out, yeah. It'll be a couple of weeks minimum - just pulled up with his hamstring, so we’ve had a scan on it. Not a really serious one, but you've just always got to be careful with them.
“(Armstrong) is fine. Andy's fine as well. He’s reacted really well to the treatment. This is well ahead of where we first thought but when I say he's fine, obviously he's at that stage where he is training and has shown, for the last couple of weeks, where he’s at.
“We've seen him sprinting, we've seen him doing everything he'd be doing in a game. And yeah, we're just going to have to manage him back in, I think, steadily - similar to what we've done with Pol (Valentin).”
Heckingbottom stated that defenderLewis Gibson is ‘not near yet’ but couldn’t say if he would be looking at the new year. As for midfielder Ali McCann, it’s still a waiting game over the number eight’s broken arm.
“He's just plodding along, working hard,” said the PNE boss. “The issues he's got, and we've got, is it's really frustrating because he's working as hard as anyone, but we can't involve him in football because if he falls on his arm, that's the danger.
“So, until he gets the all clear, we can't put him in any contact. The chances are he'd be alright and he could join in with us and train, but if you do that and then he falls... we don't want to risk that.
“We need to make sure the healing process has gone all the way to the end and we'll re-scan him at that point when he should be fine. We know what he had to have done. Any contact and he falls on it, he's back to square one. So, the next scan will be at the date where healing should have taken place.
“If it has and he's fine, his fitness will be ready. He's technically getting a lot of work, whether that's on the outside with us or 1v1 stuff. So, if they say he's healed, he's ready to go, we can chuck him in straight away. It's just the football he's missed. It'll be great to have him back.”
PNE have been without some key first team players in recent weeks, right the way through the XI. If North End can maintain a consistent level of results and then welcome those bodies back, Heckingbottom knows how big of a boost it will feel.
“One hundred per cent,” said the North End boss. “When you welcome them back, you tend to start losing one or two. I think what's important... we've had some big, bad injuries. We've obviously had Robbie (Brady) and Pottsy unavailable this season.
“Keano had a niggle from last season. We thought we had him pre-season but he's back now, he's trained daily now for the last few weeks, which is good. So, we need those big injuries back. Lewis (Gibson’s) was pretty big.
“Andy's, touch wood, on the back end of it and coming back in. Pol’s back in, Ali with that break, Milly with the suspension... if we can welcome these long-termers back and you just get one or two little niggles every now and again, then yeah, we'd welcome that.”
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