“To lose him is massive” – Preston North End fan pundit reacts to significant player blow | OneFootball

This article is part of Football League World’s ‘Terrace Talk‘ series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Preston North End are currently sweating over the fitness of striker Emil Riis after he was forced off against Stoke City last week.

Riis was substituted in the first half of the 1-0 win over the Potters at the bet365 Stadium last Monday and manager Ryan Lowe admitted after the game he was concerned.

“It obviously doesn’t look good,” Lowe told BBC Radio Lancashire.

“He’s due to see the specialist on Monday and then we’ll get a proper rough gauge of what he needs and how long he’s out.

“It’s disappointing how he went off at the side of the pitch. Looking back at it, he’s sped up to try and get a cross in and gone into the advertising boards and the dip [at the edge of the pitch] hasn’t helped.”

Riis has been crucial this season in North End’s play-off push, with the club currently sitting 10th, two points from the top six.

The Dane was the Lilywhites’ top scorer last season with 20 goals in all competitions and has five goals to his name this campaign.

But he could be set for a potentially long injury-lay off, although the club have completed the signing of striker Tom Cannon on loan from Everton which should mitigate the impact.

FLW’s Preston fan pundit Sam Weeden was in no doubt how much of a loss Riis would be.

“It would be a massive blow to lose Emil Riis, especially considering they’ve missed out on Archer,” Sam said.

“Parrott is injured, Sean Maguire is always injured and obviously Ched Evans is playing very well at the moment, but we’ve seen at times in the past he can struggle so it’s not a guarantee for him to stay fit and stay scoring goals.

“Emil’s the best striker at the club and it would devastating to lose him for that period of time. He’s the first 20-goal a season striker at this level for North End in about 20 years since Richard Cresswell.

“We don’t have a striker of that type who can go in behind, so I think to lose him is massive and the club have got a big job to do to replace him for the rest of the season.”

1 of 22

Ben Woodburn

Liverpool Newcastle United

The verdict

It is hard to disagree with Sam on this one.

Although Riis has struggled to hit the heights he did last season, he has still been a key player and his absence will be particularly felt in a team that have only managed 24 goals from their 26 Championship games.

Cannon is a signing with a lot of promise, but there is no guarantee he will adapt to the Championship and Lowe will not want to put too much pressure on a young player with limited first-team experience.

As Sam says, you cannot rely on Evans to score goals consistently although North End will be desperately hoping he can continue his current run of form as they anxiously await further news on Riis’ injury.