A list of the 3 Preston North End players who can miss tonight’s Championship game against Wrexham at the Racecourse despite starting the last 1-1 fixture during early December.
Playing a Championship rival twice within a span of six months usually gives enough clues for preparation. From the outside, Wrexham are quite familiar with the 2025/26 Preston North End squad, their formations as well as the Lilywhites second tier tactics.
Taking a closer look, one of those two showdowns was a Carabao Cup outing, which is labelled as a lineup rotation day among clubs across the English football pyramid. Preston must have fielded a slightly weaker eleven there instead of a full strength starting lineup.
Hence, Wrexham can’t treat that evening’s Preston North End teamsheet as a hint of what playing combination is set to arrive at the Racecourse. Secondly, the Lancashire outfit are blessed with striker Milutin Osmajic’s long awaited return to action who was ruled out of selection back then during the Wrexham 1-1 Preston reverse fixture at Deepdale.
How about the other 10 players except Osmajic from that draw? Can Wrexham take it for granted that everybody else will be up to races from the Preston North End camp, unfortunately NO.
The reason being that a trio of surprises are waiting in store for the Red Dragons. A grand total of 3 starters who helped earn Preston a valuable home point against Wrexham are question marks for tonight’s face off in North Wales.
3 Preston North End starters can miss the Wrexham fixture
Lewis Dobbin
Kicking things off from the attacking department, Lewis Dobbin is labelled as a doubt by the Lancashire Post all due to a “minor muscle issue”. If that injury scare deprives Dobbin from a Wrexham start, Red Dragons head Phil Parkinson can’t be a more thankful man from the dugout.
Dobbin caused Wrexham early problems in the Cup tie, with his swift 1-0 goal allowing Preston to march onto a first half lead. Going by the numbers, Dobbin is the joint biggest source of goals for the Lilywhites in a campaign where Preston’s goal machine Osmajic has barely featured.
Dealing with both of them would have been too much trouble for Wrexham’s defence, thus, they can take a sigh of relief.
Stefan Teitur Thordarson
Second up, is Thordarson who may not be Preston’s go to midfield controller for every big Championship game. Or maybe, his fitness is stopping him from leading the Lilywhites promotion chasing midfield.
Both ways, Wrexham will be glad not to face Thordarson in the final matchday of 2025. His absence means one less super sub option for Preston if they needed to split points from the Dragons, and honestly, no Wrexham fan will want the club to return home after leaving crucial points on the table.
Liam Lindsay
Finally, coming to Lewis Dobbin’s scoring partner in crime at Preston’s backyard. His 2-1 goal lowered the spirits among the travelling Wrexham crowd who had came over to witness a magical Cup night in Lancashire.
Thankfully, Big man Kieffer Moore rose the highest to snuck the ball in from close range. In a few hours, his task to bag goals could be light work considering the report has put Lindsay in the doubt category.
Noting all these pre game factors, myself and many other Wrexham fans will feel that the player unavailability area is a concern for both clubs. The Red Dragons have packed a win despite all this, which should be enough motivation for Phil Parkinson’s men to go all out for an eighth league win of the 2025/26 Championship season.
