CLAUDE Davis became Preston North End's second summer signing this week -- and promptly joined the club's casualty list.
The Jamaican international centre-half has completed a one-year loan deal with Preston after his agent, Phil Graham, finally arrived in the country to talk with Preston's top brass.
He had been playing for Jamaican champions Portmore United.
The 24-year-old has passed a medical, but currently has a slight ankle injury brought on during his involvement with his national side in the CONCACAF Gold Cup tournament over the summer.
And there is one other stumbling block before he can run out for the Lilywhites and that is that Preston must secure a work permit for him.
He has played eight out of 13 competitive internationals for Jamaica, known as the Reggae Boyz in the last two years and has medical certificates explaining why he missed the other five.
This has left North End confident they will be able to get the permit for him.
Preston boss Craig Brown said: "It has been much publicised that we have been chasing Claude and the deal was agreed in principle some time ago and we are pleased he will join us.
"Claude has passed a medical, but has a slight ankle injury which he picked up in the Gold Cup and will work with Andrew Balderston, before hopefully getting involved in a couple of weeks. He is happy to be here and I can't await to see him in action. I've known about him for about a year since speaking to Ricardo about his international team-mates.
"It was too early then to think about signing him because he didn't have enough international appearances.
"We watched the situation closely, counting down the number of internationals he was playing and I think everything should be sorted by the weekend."
Also in that treament room at the moment is Marlon Broomes, which has left North End short of cover at the back lately.
That didn't stop them knocking six past Bristol Rovers at the weekend, although they did let in three.
On Tuesday, North End lost for the first time in the pre-seaon, going down 2-1 to Tranmere Rovers, who have just appointed Kelham O'Hanlon as assistant manager.
O'Hanlon was made redundant during the summer and as the players went out on the pitch at Prenton Park, they all made a point of shaking O'Hanlon's hand.
David Healy bagged for Preston in the game, which also featured North End's first summer signing, Lee Briscoe.
North End play Everton at Deepdale on Saturday.
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