Brady blow won't dampen Hecky's spirits ahead of trip to Loftus Road

North End will be without Robbie Brady on the opening day of the season at Queens Park Rangers.

- by George Hodgson

The Lilywhites head to Loftus Road but the Republic of Ireland international will play no part, along with summer signing Jordan Thompson. There have been reports of Brad Potts also being absent through injury, but manager Paul Heckingbottom was far more coy over the No.44. He said: “I'm not saying he's out, but we'll see how he is.

“Robbie got injured in the last game, did his calf, so he'll be out a couple of weeks. We'll see how we are then. Hopefully, we get the boys back as quick as possible.

“When (Thompson) wasn’t progressing, he wasn't happy with it – Jacko wasn’t happy with it - so we went and had a different type of scan. Something was missed in the first diagnosis. He's had an operation to repair that.