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Jordy de Wijs, Reece Burke and Jon Toral will all be in Hull City’s squad for Saturday’s trip to Preston North End as the club’s once debilitating injury crisis continues to ease.

De Wijs and Burke have both trained fully this week to bolster Grant McCann’s defensive options, while Toral has spent a second week sharpening up his fitness after three months out with knee ligament damage.

The influential trio are expected to join Kevin Stewart in a beefed-up 18-man squad at Deepdale but Martin Samuelsen (calf) remains on the sidelines along with rookie Keane Lewis-Potter (hamstring).

City will have to check on Marcus Maddison, who has missed training this week with a sickness bug, but after welcoming back Matthew Pennington and Ryan Tafazolli for the 4-4 draw with Swansea City last time out, McCann’s options continue to increase.

(Image: Focus)

“It’s got better,” said McCann this lunchtime. “We’ll have Jordy back, we’ll have Reece back.

“Angus has been training but is still a bit away. Kevin Stewart has trained all week, Jon Toral has trained all week and the week before.

“There’s four big players for us coming back.

“Jordy and Reece have played a lot of games so those two will probably in a better place than Jon and Kevin, given the amount of games they’ve played and the amount of time Jon and Kevin were out. Those two are good.

On Toral and Stewart, McCann added: "They’ll be in the squad, both of them. They’ll travel with us. They definitely come into the thinking.”

De Wijs and Burke had been City’s first-choice central defensive pairing for the majority of this season before they suffered recent injuries but both will be considered for a recall to the starting XI at Deepdale.

There is a question mark over the involvement of Toral and Stewart given the length of time they have spent out but they appear assured of at least a place on the bench.

City’s trip to Preston is the first of three games in eight days for McCann’s men and there is a chance Samuelsen could be the next one back in the fold ahead of hosting Barnsley on Wednesday and then Leeds next Saturday.

“Martin is going to train tomorrow,” added McCann. “He’s been out on the grass but we’ve got to be careful with him. We probably rushed him a little bit when he came in.

"Thinking back, he’d had the full season in Norway, a little break and then a couple of weeks with West Ham.

“Then he’s come to us and in the circumstances we tried to get him up to speed quicker, in hindsight, than we probably should’ve done. Ultimately that’s caused him a little problem with his calf but he’s close.”