AMERICAN winger Eddie Lewis is set to return to action for North End - less than a fortnight after his father died.

Lewis flew back into the UK earlier this week, trained in the gym yesterday and was due to join with the rest of the team for training today, a club spokesman told The Citizen.

His return will be a welcome relief to Craig Brown following last weekend's 2-4 home defeat against Wigan, where Preston's lack of a left-wing specialist was ruthlessly exploited by the Latics to great effect.

Lewis will probably be thrown straight back into action at the weekend when Preston travel to Swansea for the fourth round of the FA Cup - with North End determined not to be fallen by third division opposition for the second time in as many years.

Last year's third round FA Cup exit against Rochdale is possibly the low point of Brown's tenure at North End - and the boss knows that nothing can be taken for granted against Swansea this weekend - especially as Preston don't have home advantage this time.

He said: "It is a tricky tie for us and we have to be on our guard. They will be looking for a big scalp and we will be that to them.

"We will have to be very careful."

At the same time, North End will be looking for a quick return to winning ways. Prior to last weekend's game, Preston had not lost a game since the end of November.

And Brown said: "It is important we show that the result against Wigan was just a blip and we start winning straight away.

"Some of the goals we conceded were soft and we cannot afford for that to happen again."

As well as being buoyed by the return of Lewis - who flew out to be with his dying father just before the West Ham game - Brown is hopeful most of the injury concerns he had following the Wigan game will have cleared up by the time the team bus departs tomorrow.

Ricardo Fuller, Chris Lucketti, Marlon Broomes and Claude Davis all picked up knocks at the weekend, while Rob Edwards, who would normally have come on to the left in Lewis' abscence, was already injured.

Fuller, it emerged after the game, had played through with a slight fluid build-up on his knee, and Brown admitted that if it happens again, he may be forced to rest his Jamaican goal machine.

David Healy returns to action following a one-match ban, while Michael Jackson will serves the last of a four-match ban.

But one player who has possibly played his last game in a North End shirt is David Lucas. The Preston-born goalkeeper has had his loan extended for another month at Sheffield Wednesday, and Brown has said that, should a sensible offer come in for the former England youth international, he can leave Deepdale.

Lucas has fallen down the pecking order since Jonathan Gould arrived last season.

Gould's deal was extended following his initial short stint - he was brought in during the transfer window - and it is understood Brown is hoping to repeat that trick with the new defender he wants to bring in.

Understood to be an international who has played on both sides of the border, Brown is keen to wrap up a deal this week - even though the new player wouldn't figure in the Swansea game under FA Cup registration rules.

There is also a swap-deal in the offing, but again Brown is refusing to say who is involved, although there has been suggestion in London that Leyland-born former Blackpool defender Clarke Carlisle could swap QPR for Deepdale with Dickson Etuhu going the other way.

Brown said: "We are continuing to look to improve the side, and I don't want to say any more."