Preston North End will have to choose which players they wish to leave out of their current 29 man squad when it comes to naming it at the end of the month, as per a recent report by LancsLive.

The Lilywhites currently have 29 senior players on their books, which means they are currently four over the 25 man selection limit that the football authorities enforce every season.

As a result of this, Frankie McAvoy and his staff face a very tough decision over who they leave out on this occasion, with the squad that gets selected having to last the club up until January of next year.

There is also still a possibility that North End could look to sign former Sunderland and Crystal Palace striker Connor Wickham on a free transfer, with the club yet to make a decision on the trialist frontman.

Bringing in the striker would take their squad capacity to 30, which means five players would need to be cast by the wayside in order to meet the requirements.

The Verdict 

This is certainly a situation that McAvoy and his staff will not have wanted to be in at this stage of the season and he now faces some very tough decisions before submitting the squad.

The fact that signing Wickham is seemingly still on the agenda only complicates matters and it will be interesting to see which players are left out moving forwards.

Izzy Brown is one of the most obvious candidates to be left out due to his injury keeping him out for the duration of the season, whilst the likes of Josh Harrop and Paul Huntington could also be cut as they appear unlikely to get many minutes under the current regime.

These decisions should in turn result in further departures during January as North End look to trim down the squad.