Striker Keinan Davis was unable to do any sort of fitness work or training last week due to being ill.

The on-loan forward made a very brief appearance as substitute at Birmingham, then didn’t feature at all at Preston as head coach Rob Edwards explained the player needed to reach match sharpness.

However, plans to begin his work on that were scuppered last week as he became ill and wasn’t even able to attend the training ground.

“Keinan hasn’t really had what you’d call a proper pre-season,” said Edwards. “He was training on his own much of the time, and so he’s not what you’d call match fit. He’s fit but he’s not fully sharp.

“I probably did nobody any favours by throwing him on against Birmingham. I wanted to get him involved, I was excited we had him and even though our sports science guys were saying it was too early, I put him in the squad and then brought him on at the end of the game.

“What we need to do is get him to a position where he’s absolutely match sharp. There is no injury problem or anything like that: it’s just a case that if I rush him in again it might take longer to get him to that level of sharpness.

“What has set us back is that he’s been really poorly. He’s been that ill that he’s not even been near the training ground all week.

“So whereas we’d normally have him at the training ground working on those fitness aspects and also doing some other general football training, we’ve not been able to do anything.”

Edwards said that once the striker was well enough to resume his work, he would do so – but nothing would be rushed.

“The key thing is that we let him get over the illness and then set to work on his fitness. It really is a question of being patient. I’m frustrated, Keinan is frustrated but nobody can help being ill.

“We both want him out on the pitch in a Watford shirt again as soon as possible. Nobody wants that more than me because he is an exceptional player who will be brilliant for us.

“But I’m not prepared to compromise things now and then risk him being out for longer. If I push him too soon I run the risk of putting him back six weeks, and that is something I won’t do.”

Edwards admitted that brief sub appearance at St Andrews was probably a mistake.

“I got a bit keen when he first arrived and in hindsight I shouldn’t have included him at Birmingham. That didn’t set him back at all, but now we’ve lost a week due to him being very poorly.

“But now we’ll focus on getting him ready and then supporters will see why I’m so excited to have him here.”