Huddersfield Town dealt injury blow with 'significant' absence expected

Michal Helik of Huddersfield Town
-Credit: (Image: Getty Images)


Huddersfield Town head coach Michael Duff has revealed that Michal Helik could be sidelined for up to two months with a hamstring injury.

The defender had to be substituted early on in Tuesday’s 2-0 defeat to Blackpool, and now looks set to be unavailable for a lengthy period.

Last season’s top goalscorer has started all seven of Town’s League One matches to date, but the centre-back is now not expected to feature again until November.

“Mich won’t be available, he looks like he’s got a fairly significant hamstring [injury]. The early diagnosis is probably six to eight weeks,” Duff confirmed at this afternoon's press conference.

However, Duff suggested that Jonathan Hogg could be available for Saturday's clash at Reading despite pulling up in the warm-up ahead of the Blackpool fixture, with what was initially thought to be a groin injury.

“Hoggy’s actually not as bad as what we thought, he might have just had a little bit of cramp or something,” Duff added.

“He seems not too bad today, so there’s a good chance he’ll be available for selection at the weekend. Obviously we’ve still got a couple of days before the game, so we’ll have to judge that.

“Obviously he knows his body quite well, and we didn’t want to take the risk, particularly in the second half when it didn’t look like we were going to ever get back into the game in all honesty. He was adamant that he’d done something, and it looks like he hasn’t, so that’s a positive.”

Mickel Miller appears touch and go for this weekend’s encounter after missing the last two matches, also with a hamstring injury.

“He’s trained today, so he’ll be close. It’ll be a decision that we make, whether he can or he can’t,” Duff said.

“To be fair to Jaheim (Headley), I thought Jaheim was good the other night. He had a really poor game (against Northampton), there’s no getting away from it, and I thought he reacted positively, because he got a bit of stick after the Northampton game.

“It’s tough for a young player, so to react the way he did, he was one of the better performers. It was a poor night, there wasn’t many good performances, but I was pleased with the way Jaheim came through it, but Mickel will be close.”

Chris Maxwell is also back in training after missing the last four matches with a heart-related issue.

“Chris, the last two days, he’s joined in training,” Duff said.

“He just has this protocol, and with it being his heart, there isn’t anything sinister or serious, because he wouldn’t be training, but he just has to follow these really careful protocols, that he has to do a certain amount of exercise, and his heart rate has to drop at a certain rate, and a couple of times he did it and it didn’t drop as quick as it should’ve done, so we’ve had to just wait. Hopefully he’s on a build-up now to full match fitness.”