Paul Heckingbottom expects Milutin Osmajic to be banned by The FA before the weekend after being charged for biting Owen Beck.

The Preston North End striker admitted he was guilty of the offence on Monday and is now waiting to discover how many games he will miss.

In the meantime, PNE have continued to play Osmajic and he scored twice for them on Wednesday night against Watford. Heckingbottom defended that decision and insisted the matter had been dealt with internally.

The North End boss expects Osmajic to ban banned before their match against Burnley at the weekend, which will be just shy of two weeks after the incident took place.

“There were lots of reasons (for the team against Watford)... Milly deserved his chance. We don’t know the outcome, but he is probably not going to be available at the weekend," he told The Lancashire Evening Post.

“It made sense, with such a short turnaround, to have Will, Emil (Riis) and Layton (Stewart) available and let Milly have his game here. It would’ve been the same decision anyway, but just with the quick turnaround and the probability he will be missing - it made sense to not put anyone else in the firing line. Luckily, it was the right call.

“We handled it well with him. I would never share discussions we have internally. But, we deal with that our way, my way and I am not going to punish everyone twice. Like I say, it is up to the governing bodies to do that.

"It’s his fault (if he’s banned). I have just been asked a question down there... I am not going to punish him twice, me twice, the club twice, the fans twice. We will wait and see what the governing bodies do and then deal with that.

“The process is ongoing; we will wait and see the outcome. I cannot talk about that, I don’t know anything. I am not lying to you, I just don’t know.

“We will have our own things, internally, but apart from that the FA will decide. We are in it together. We will all make mistakes, while I am here. But, so long as they are for the right reasons and we learn from the mistakes we make, then we look after each other.”