{"id":667583,"date":"2026-04-03T05:21:39","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T09:21:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=667583"},"modified":"2026-04-03T05:21:39","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T09:21:39","slug":"leicester-preston-north-end-team-news-predicted-lineups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/04\/03\/leicester-preston-north-end-team-news-predicted-lineups\/","title":{"rendered":"Leicester vs Preston North End: Team News and Predicted Lineups"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"entry-header mb-6\">\n<p class=\"entry-title text-3xl md:text-4xl font-bold text-gray-900 leading-tight\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Last Word on Football brings you the latest team news and predicted lineups ahead of the Leicester versus Preston North End EFL Championship<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">showdown.<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\"> Leicester will be hopeful of taking advantage of an out-of-form Preston side and ultimately reigniting their hopes of survival. Meanwhile, the visitors have an opportunity to make it back-to-back wins for the first time since early January. Paul Heckinbottom&#8217;s side haven&#8217;t been at their best since the turn of the year, which makes this Good Friday encounter all the more interesting.<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"entry-content content-styled max-w-none\">\n<div class=\"lwos-incontent-ad\">\n<h2 id=\"snack-incontent-1\">EFL Championship: Team News and Predicted Lineups for Leicester vs Preston<\/h2>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"max-width: 500px\"><smartframe-embed class=\"smartframe_wp_element\" customer-id=\"1ffbae35d432d0d71911ca2a0b209fbb\" image-id=\"prsiJcn1LxFg\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 2700px; aspect-ratio: 2700\/1800;\" ><\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><b>Date:<\/b><span> Frida<\/span>y, April 3, 2026<\/p>\n<p><b>Venue:<\/b><span> King Power Stadium<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"lwos-incontent-ad\">\n<div id=\"snack-incontent-2\"><b>Kick-off:<\/b> 15:00 GMT<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><b>Last meeting:<\/b><span> Preston 2-1 Leicester <\/span>(August 16, 2025).<\/p>\n<p><b>Referee:<\/b><span> Ben Speedie<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Current odds: <\/b>Leicester 5\/6, Preston 3\/1, Draw 11\/4.<\/p>\n<div class=\"lwos-incontent-ad\">\n<div id=\"snack-incontent-3\"><strong>Read More<\/strong>:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/02\/26\/the-greatest-footballers-of-all-time\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">The Greatest Footballers of All Time: Part Two, 1918-1939<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h3>Leicester Team News<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arsenal.com\/news\/every-word-artetas-pre-leverkusen-presser-0\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><\/a>Ahead of the Good Friday clash, Rowett <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lcfc.com\/pages\/en\/media-article\/gary-rowett-jordan-james-leicester-city-squad-fitness-injury-update-lcfc-pne-preston-north-end-championship\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">discussed<\/a> the injury concerns affecting his squad. Jordan James came off early for Wales, which caused huge concern among the fanbase. <span>\u201cHe\u2019s obviously come back for treatment,\u201d Rowett explained on James. \u201cHe landed a little bit awkwardly. It wasn\u2019t anywhere near perhaps what one or two people felt at the time, which was that it might be something more serious.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Outside of this, more and more players are coming back. Rowett said: <span>\u201cWe\u2019ve got a few players coming back. Jannik [Vestergaard]\u00a0 has trained well for a period of time now. Aaron Ramsey has trained well and trained consistently.\u201d Harry Souttar is also making pleasing progress as he clocked in 45 minutes for the under-21s.<\/span><span data-yinzcam-particle-name=\"TextParticle\" class=\"svelte-empw0w yinzcam-particle-base yinzcam-particle-inline particle-with-center-content-vertically\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>These names returning into the picture could be pivotal for Leicester&#8217;s fight for safety. It seems competition for places has been lacking for much of this season.<\/p>\n<h3>Preston North End Team News<\/h3>\n<p>As for the visitors, they have been out of form for much of 2026. They are now 10 points off the play-offs, which is a surprise given their brilliant start. In the reverse fixture, North End looked a level above the Foxes, and that was when the likes of James Justin and Bilal El Khannouss were in the squad.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read More<\/strong><span>:\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2025\/02\/28\/greatest-footballers-of-all-time\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Greatest Footballers of All Time: Pre World War One<\/a><\/p>\n<p>However, they have had their own injury issues to contend with. For Instance, Lewis Gibson hasn&#8217;t been available for almost a month now, but he could be back for the trip to the King Power. Heckingbottom<a  href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/programmes\/p0lpfm5z\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> said<\/a>: <span>\u201cYeah, the only one who&#8217;s obviously further on and probably 100% now is Gibbo. <\/span><span>He&#8217;s virtually there. He&#8217;s done everything with us, he&#8217;s really confident now, and yeah, he&#8217;s in a position where there is nothing holding him back now.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"max-width: 300px\"><smartframe-embed class=\"smartframe_wp_element\" customer-id=\"e8c3ce70f1ad837bdffb21e2453272b6\" image-id=\"XhXPoU8YtOIe\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 1988px; aspect-ratio: 1988\/2047;\" ><\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n<p>In terms of absences, a number of players are likely to miss the clash.\u00a0 Jamal Lewis is out for the season, whilst the game comes to quickly for Alistair McCann, Robbie Brady and Callum Lang as they may return in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n<h3>Leicester Predicted Lineup<\/h3>\n<p>Stolarczyk<\/p>\n<p>Periera<\/p>\n<p>Okoli<\/p>\n<p>Lascelles<\/p>\n<p>Thomas<\/p>\n<p>Skipp<\/p>\n<p>Winks<\/p>\n<p>Fatawu<\/p>\n<p>Mukasa<\/p>\n<p>Mavididi<\/p>\n<p>Daka<\/p>\n<h3>Preston North End Predicted Lineup<\/h3>\n<p>Iversen<\/p>\n<p>Storey<\/p>\n<p>Lindsay<\/p>\n<p>Hughes<\/p>\n<p>Valentin<\/p>\n<p>Whiteman<\/p>\n<p>Devine<\/p>\n<p>Small<\/p>\n<p>Moran<\/p>\n<p>Osmajic<\/p>\n<p>Dobbin<\/p>\n<p><strong>Featured Image Credit<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>IMAGO \/ Pro Sports Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last Word on Football brings you the latest team news and predicted lineups ahead of the Leicester versus Preston North End EFL Championship\u00a0showdown. Leicester will be hopeful of taking advantage of an out-of-form Preston side and ultimately reigniting their hopes of survival. Meanwhile, the visitors have an opportunity to make it back-to-back wins for the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5391,"featured_media":663625,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1831,33,32,15,30],"tags":[32613],"class_list":["post-667583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-starting-line-up","category-championship","category-league-football","category-leicester-city","category-news","tag-leicester-predicted-lineup"],"modified_by":"Alex Richards, LWOF Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5391"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=667583"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667583\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":667644,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667583\/revisions\/667644"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/663625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=667583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=667583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=667583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}