Former England youth international Ryan Ledson has been released by Preston North End after seven years with the club.
Ledson, who is in a relationship with Coronation Street star Lucy Fallon, departs Deepdale on the expiry of his contract after making 215 appearances in all competitions for the club.
Preston announced earlier this week that the 27-year-old would leave the club on a free transfer this summer after helping them avoid relegation to League One.
The Everton academy graduate started Preston’s final game of the season as they secured a 2-2 draw with Bristol to remain in the second tier.
Despite suffering with an injury towards the end of the campaign Ledson told the club’s social media that watching the final game of the season from the stands ‘was never an option’.
‘I picked up a hamstring injury three weeks before the end of the season,’ he explained.
Ryan Ledson is set to leave Preston North End after spending seven years at the club
The 27-year-old has been in a relationship with Coronation Street star Lucy Fallon since 2020
The pair have two children together, having welcomed a daughter in January of this year
‘I got told it was going to be three weeks and I probably wouldn’t play until the end of the season, but that wasn’t happening. I knew my situation, I knew I wasn’t going to be at the club after the end of the season and the way it was going, we needed to stay [up].
‘I was touch and go for the Plymouth game but I said to the manager that I wanted to be involved. I couldn’t sit in the stands and watch what was happening, so I got myself back for that.
‘To start in the Bristol City game was brilliant because I was right up for it. We knew what we needed to do and when that second goal goes in, all the fans and everything, it was just brilliant.’
The midfielder’s partner Fallon, who stars as Bethany Platt on the long-running ITV soap, shared his exit announcement to her 595,000 followers on Instagram.
The pair began dating in 2020 and have since had two children together, a son born in 2023 and a daughter born earlier this year.
