Striker Jermaine Beckford will be out for "a few months" following knee surgery
Thursday 10 September 2015 12:46, UK
Striker Jermaine Beckford will be out for "a few months" following knee surgery, Preston boss Simon Grayson has confirmed.
The North End forward, 31, moved to Deepdale on a permanent deal over the summer but missed the start of the campaign due to a knee problem.
Although he made a couple of late cameo appearances from the bench last month the problem has not gone away and he has now undergone an operation to repair cartilage damage.
In anticipation of losing Beckford for a long stretch of the campaign, Grayson signed Stevie May and Eoin Doyle on deadline day to bolster his attacking options.
"Jermaine has had the operation and will be out for a number of months unfortunately," Grayson told a press conference on Thursday morning.
"That was something which we were mindful might happen.
"It is negative news but we had enough positives with the two lads Eoin Doyle and Stevie May who we brought in last week. Jermaine's injury was the reason we did those deals.
"These things happen in football, we have seen other teams lose top players with injuries.
"I'm not going to put an exact time-scale on how long Jermaine is going to be out but it will be a few months rather than weeks."