Steven Fletcher and Tom Ince pushing to start as Stoke host Preston

Posted Sunday, January 02, 2022 by PA

Steven Fletcher and Tom Ince will be hoping to start for Stoke against Preston.

Fletcher, who suffered badly with coronavirus, and Ince both came off the bench during the 2-1 defeat to Derby in midweek and could be handed a starting shirt by Michael O’Neill.

O’Neill will assess his squad after Thursday’s game with the Rams, which was their first since December 11 after a number of postponements.

Jordan Thompson (knee), Joe Bursik (thigh), Romaine Sawyers (thigh), Nick Powell (leg) and Harry Souttar (knee) are expected to be still out.

Preston also return to action for the first time since December 11 following their own coronavirus outbreak.

Boss Ryan Lowe has been monitoring his squad and will assess which of his players that caught the virus will be available.

They only returned to training on Thursday with Lowe saying he would put them through their paces on Saturday and Sunday.

Lowe told the Lancashire Evening Post: “We had to be careful with putting too much work into the lads who had Covid, making sure it didn’t affect them. There were some lads who were worse off than others in terms of how they felt.”