Huddersfield Town suffer injury blow with Martin Drury refusing to take added risk

Huddersfield Town have suffered an injury blow with Jack Whatmough set to be missing for at least a couple of weeks

Huddersfield Town defender Jack Whatmough is set to miss at least the next two to three weeks with a groin injury.

The centre-back started the opening two games of the campaign against Preston North End and AFC Wimbledon, but was unavailable for Saturday’s 1-1 draw at MK Dons.

“Jack had a problem in training, again nothing really too much to it, he just felt something in his groin,” Town’s head coach Martin Drury told BBC Radio Leeds. “It’s not a big injury, he won’t be out for a long period of time, but we’ll miss him for the next two, three weeks at least.

“In times gone past, Jack might have said ‘look I’ll just play through it’, but then we risk him being out for a lot longer, and as you rightly said, he started the season really, really well, he’s worked incredibly hard in the off season, these things are going to happen.

“Jack missed a hell of a lot of football last season, so it’s not as simple as he comes back and that’s it plain sailing, there’s going to be these little hiccups along the way, but we know when he’s on the pitch, he’s a very good player for us, so we’ll look after Jack, we’ll get him back as quick as we can, he’ll get himself back as quick as he can, and we look forward to his return.”

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Last season’s player of the year Murray Wallace came into the side for his first start of the campaign, and Drury praised both him and fellow centre-back Ibane Bowat for their performances against MK Dons, with the pair still getting up to full speed.

“We’re still building fitness of players. You look at the group today, there’s players on the pitch that you won’t be aware of, but people shouldn’t be playing some of the minutes they’re playing,” the Terriers’ boss added.

“Ibane Bowat’s gone again, I thought he was excellent again. Murray Wallace, not played a 90 minutes because he broke his hand in pre-season, so he’s just done 90 minutes for us, I thought he was outstanding, the way he defended the box, the way he defended direct play, aerial duels, the way he competed.”