Paul Heckingbottom, the manager of Preston North End, has explained why Callum Lang, the club record signing, was not present against Portsmouth.
The 27-year-old was linked to a move to Deepdale for weeks before being snapped up by North End from Pompey on transfer deadline day. Regarding social media allegations that the two teams had decided Lang wouldn’t play, Preston’s manager was questioned.
In response to that speculation, Heckingbottom told BBC Lancashire: “That’s not allowed.”
PNE’s boss added: “He’s just not been training. His last session was Wednesday last week with Portsmouth, because of how their training week is. The next time we saw him was Tuesday after a stressful few days.
“So, he just did the warm-up with us and a bit on his own. The only day he trained with us was Thursday and when he’s been out with a (hamstring) injury, I know if I had him on the bench I would’ve brought him on to the pitch. We’ve erred on the side of caution.”
Heckingbottom said Lang could return next week and later provided some further positive news regarding injuries, with some mid-term absentees possibly in line to come back against Watford.
Jebbo [Daniel Jebbison] felt his groin after Ipswich,” said Heckingbottom. “Fatigue but a slight strain in there. [Liam Lindsay] jarred his knee yesterday in training. We were a little bit worried with the nature [of it] so sent him for a scan, but pretty good news.
Naturally, I won’t be shocked if you see Milly [Milutin Osmajic], Langy, Jebbo, Linds, maybe [Andrew] Hughes, and possibly Dan [Iversen] the following week. It would be nice to have them all return.
“It’s excellent that Robbie [Brady] has returned to training in recent days. It would be good to have all of the good players return since they understand what we’re about.
