Peterborough United welcome back key men for the trip to Preston North End, but they are also missing a major player

Szmodics returns after missing two matches for paternity leave and Grant is back after missing Tuesday’s draw with Cardiff City with an ankle injury.

Midfielder Jack Taylor also has a ‘small chance’ of playing at Deepdale, but skipper and key centre-back Mark Beevers will be absent with a hamstring injury. Posh are awaiting the results of a scan to determine how long the captain will be out.

Posh boss Darren Ferguson said: “Mark’s a big loss for us because of his experience and because he had been playing well, but we have plenty of cover in defensive areas.

“I can move Josh Knight in there or play Ronnie Edwards. I could also switch to a flat back four.

“It’s good to have Sammie and Jorge back though. Sammie has missed a week of training, but he’s a naturally fit lad so he will be involved at Preston. We knew Jorge would only be out for one game.

“Jack Taylor is taking longer than I expected to get fit, but we have to be careful with him. He did some work yesterday so we will see how he is feeling after that. I’d have to say he was a doubt for Saturday, but he has a small chance of being involved.”

Posh will face a Preston side currently propping up the Championship table with no points from three matches, but Ferguson expects his old club to provide a tough test.

“It’s always tough at Preston,” Ferguson added. “They’ve not started well, but it’s early days and they have some very good players at the club.

“They are particularly strong in midfield so we will have to get to our best level to get the result we want.

“We have just had two very positive performances which should have led to six points. It was unfortunate how the Cardiff game ended (they equalised in the 95th minute), but we have to learn from that. We lost our composure towards the end, but it was still a very good performance after a very encouraging fightback against Derby.

“Still if we can get seven points from a possible nine by winning tomorrow it will have been a great week for us. We are certainly going up there to try and win the game.”