{"id":540063,"date":"2025-10-31T15:11:26","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T15:11:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/540063\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T15:11:26","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T15:11:26","slug":"northern-ireland-defender-keen-to-earn-recall-to-squad-after-netting-short-term-championship-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/540063\/","title":{"rendered":"Northern Ireland defender keen to earn recall to squad after netting short-term Championship deal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Jamal Lewis\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/4071099d-d06a-41ea-87ab-ea3b842b174e.jpg\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"100%\" data-testid=\"article-image\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_caption1 beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_secondary beltel-66f0fec7_regular beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom0 beltel-1d70522a_marginleft0 beltel-1d70522a_marginright0 beltel-1d70522a_margintop3 beltel-b48c4984_left\" style=\"color:var(--color-grey-60)\">Jamal Lewis<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom0 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Northern Ireland defender Jamal Lewis wants to \u201chelp as much as (he) can\u201d in his bid to earn a recall to the international squad after inking a short-term deal with Championship side Preston North End.<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom5 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">The 27-year-old, who has been without a club since his release from Newcastle United in the summer, has signed a contract at Deepdale that runs until the end of December.<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom5 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">It is almost a year since Lewis last made a senior appearance due to injuries, his last game coming in November 2024 for Sao Paulo against Paranaese, but he has been asked to step in at Preston due to injuries within the squad.<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom5 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">And with Michael O\u2019Neill surely watching on with interest, particularly with international team-mate Ali McCann also at Preston, Lewis is eager to get on the pitch and start impressing again.<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_system beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom4 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\">We need your consent to load this Social Media content. We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity.<\/p>\n<p>Please review your details and accept them to load the content<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom5 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">&#8220;I spoke to the manager. Obviously he knows of me and my running power, what I can give to any team that I play for. I think how the team plays should suit me and I should be able to gel with the team quite well,&#8221; Lewis said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom5 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">&#8220;I just want to be able to get as much knowledge and information and get everything moving as quickly as possible so I can just help as much as I can.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom5 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Lewis was released by Newcastle in the summer after 36 appearances for the Premier League club, while he had a loan spell with Watford as well as Sao Paulo during his time at St James\u2019s Park.<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom5 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">The former Norwich City star has won 39 caps for Northern Ireland, whom he qualifies for through his Belfast-born mother, but has been an infrequent member of the squad since O\u2019Neill returned to the job due to a lack of game-time and injury.<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom5 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Lewis could make his Preston debut this weekend against Southampton and Preston boss Paul Heckingbottom was delighted the left-back was available.<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom5 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">&#8220;We&#8217;ve been struck by a few injuries which has made the squad look a bit thin, so we felt we needed more cover in the short term and I&#8217;m really happy we&#8217;ve been able to bring in someone of Jamal&#8217;s calibre,&#8221; said Heckingbottom.<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom5 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">&#8220;He brings experience of playing at the highest level, he&#8217;s earned promotion out of this division, and he&#8217;s been playing international football since 2018.<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom5 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">&#8220;Most importantly, he&#8217;s shown us he&#8217;s really excited by the opportunity and he&#8217;s ready to give everything while he&#8217;s with us.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jamal Lewis Northern Ireland defender Jamal Lewis wants to \u201chelp as much as (he) can\u201d in his bid&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":540064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[1144,8538,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-540063","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-northern-ireland","9":"tag-northern-ireland-football-team","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115469424335109497","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}