Ryan Lowe provides injury update ahead of Preston North End’s clash with Bournemouth

Barkhuizen now faces an even longer time on the sidelines, which means he won’t be involved in Preston North End’s upcoming clash with Bournemouth this weekend.

The winger picked up what looked like a calf injury in the fixture with Swansea City last January and has not featured for the Lilywhites since.

In better news for Preston, Sean Maguire has returned to training and could be in contention this weekend.

Meanwhile, Lowe has confirmed that Greg Cunningham is still six to 10 days away from returning to the team.

Ultimately, Lowe has indicated that he is in no mood to rush players back from injury in the event that they aggravate the problem.

“Sean Maguire is back training, Tom Barkhuizen isn’t just yet, he’s had a little bit of a setback so we are being careful with that,” said Lowe, via the club’s official Twitter account. 

“Greg Cunningham is probably six to ten days away from fully training but we can’t be sure, we don’t want to rush them.”

This injury has come at a horrible time for Barkhuizen because his contract is set to expire at the end of the season.

A recurring injury problem is not likely to convince Preston to renew his contract and this latest issue casts doubt on his future with the club.

Preston are currently 12th in the Championship table.

This is very unfortunate timing for Barkhuizen, who has already missed over a month of action for the side. 

Preston would have welcomed his return to the side this weekend given their current poor run of form.

Maguire’s return will be a boost to the squad as they try to gain ground on their play-off chasing rivals.

Bournemouth will be a tough test and these injury concerns will only make Saturday’s game more difficult.

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