Preston North End boss Paul Simpson is hopeful that both Matt Hill and Paul Gallagher will recover from injury niggles in time to tackle Ipswich Town at the weekend.

Both players picked up strains in the 5-1 win at home to Southampton on Tuesday night and they now face a race against time in order to be fit for the trip to Portman Road.

Hill limped off with a hamstring problem in the closing stages of the game against the Saints and he is Simpson's main concern.

"He had a slight problem with his hamstring," Simpson said as he looked ahead to the weekend.

"We have not ruled him out for the weekend, we are going to just wait and see but it's still a little bit touch and go at the moment.

"If he is ok to train on Friday morning then he will travel, we will wait and see how he is over night, he has done a little bit of training on Thursday with Steve Kemp and we will wait and see how he is."

Gallagher is another who has done his training with the physio team but after showing good signs of recovery from niggles after the Bristol City game the Blackburn man will be keen to prolong his stint in the starting eleven.

"Paul Gallagher had a slight groin problem, whether it was a strain or just soreness I have no idea but again we will just wait and see how he is, he's also done a little bit with Kempy.

"I'm hopeful that they will both be fit because it will be nice if we can keep the same team, the same subs and just get on with it again."

The North End boss has also indicated that Brett Ormerod may not make the trip into Suffolk as he is still suffering from a back problem.

Simpson said: "Brett Ormerod has had a little bit of a problem with a sciatic nerve in the week, he trained on Thursday. I have to decide between now and Friday whether to risk letting him travel four and a half hours on the coach with a sciatic nerve problem or whether we just let him train for the next couple of days and give him the next couple of weeks to prepare for the next run of games after the international break."

PNE are 11/4 to beat Ipswich, the Tractor Boys are Evens with the draw available at 23/10. Get all the odds at bet365.com