Key Huddersfield Town players back in training (and a look at why we’ve had so many injuries)

Jonathan Hogg and Christopher Schindler were both seen back in training yesterday after missing some of preseason with injuries.

Hogg had suffered a recurrence of the hip injury that bothered him for spells last season and I don’t recall the club giving a reason why Schindler wasn’t able to train.

In totally unrelated news, it’s now two weeks since the club announced they had a “small number” of positive coronavirus cases. So the undisclosed personnel that had to self isolate will now be able to return if they are well.

(Adama Diakhaby is also back in training too, but he’s got a long way to go before he can be described as a key player. I’m all for players getting another chance but he’s got a lot to prove after his previous lacklustre efforts for Town.)

How important are Hogg and Schindler to Huddersfield Town?

In the season Town were promoted and the following year when they achieved survival in the top flight, Hogg and Schindler were the backbone of the team. They were key to our defensive solidity, which we heavily relied upon because even at our best we rarely scored lots of goals.

Two difficult years on from the height of their Town careers it is less certain how important they are to Carlos Corberán’s plans. Both had their ups and downs last season and I saw some unsubstantiated rumours that one, the other or both wanted to leave the club this summer.

I sincerely hope these rumours are false though as both still have a lot to offer the club. I can imagine they may have found last season’s struggles draining but the new project under Carlos Corberán will hopefully fire them back up and rejuvenate them for the campaign ahead.

As the only two players left at the club from Town’s promotion campaign, they have the experience our squad is desperately short of. While bringing through young players is exciting, there needs to be players around them that can set an example and provide support.

What’s up with Hogg’s hip?

Whatever the problem is with Hogg’s hip, it must be relatively serious because Hogg isn’t the kind of person to cry off training.

This is a player that wanted to try to run off a suspected broken neck a few years ago and always bounces straight up after every tackle.

It seems to be a flare up of the injury that bothered him last season too. Injuries in this area can be nasty and painful (ask Andy Murray) so it’s a bit of a concern. Hogg is otherwise one of the fittest players at the club so hopefully he’ll not have suffered too much by missing a couple of weeks of preseason.

Is Christopher Schindler still captain?

There hasn’t yet been an official announcement about this season’s captain. Schindler has done a great job of captaining the side and is a model professional (as well as looking like an actual model).

Despite Schindler’s performance as captain being fine, it wouldn’t stun me if we saw a new captain to mark the new era at Huddersfield Town.

Lewis O’Brien was a popular choice as captain in Town’s final game of last season. He’s a more vocal leader on the pitch than Schindler (who leads by example instead) and is a perfect link between the experienced players and the academy lads, having only just come through the academy himself.

So if the decision was mine, I would give the captaincy to Lewis O’Brien and let Schindler concentrate on his own performances rather than having to feel responsible for the whole team.

Who would you choose to be #HTAFC captain this season?

(Reply with a comment if you'd pick someone else.)

— TerrierSpirit.com (@SpiritTerrier) September 4, 2020

Why have there been do many injuries this preseason?

Carlos Corberán has rarely been interviewed by the press or the club’s internal media team compared to previous managers, so there aren’t a lot of details about the seeming injury crisis that has affected this preseason. So there isn’t an official explanation for all the injuries and knocks we’ve picked up.

The difficulty with not communicating is that it opens up the potential for wild speculation. So here are some of my thoughts on why so many players have been unavailable for the friendlies:

• The intensity of training – Double training sessions have been the norm this preseason with few days off to recover. I’m genuinely delighted that Corberán is putting the squad through their paces but it could be that large chunks of the squad are struggling with the increasing physical demands.
• Players close to moving away – There are players that are likely to be leaving Huddersfield Town shortly and it may be that some players weren’t risked in friendly games because we didn’t want them picking up injuries.
• We’re missing John Iga – It’s standard practice to clear out coaches when a new manager arrives but I was surprised when Town’s fitness expert, John Iga, was included in the cull of backroom staff following Danny Cowley’s departure. He was very highly regarded and has worked for the England set up before. Maybe the new team don’t have the same magical touch as him.
• The unusual post-lockdown schedule – The end of last season involved a very intense period of games every few days, the gap between seasons was much shorter and preseason has also been condensed down into a few weeks. This will have knocked players out do their usual rhythm and reduced the time they’ve had to rest and recover from previous injuries (like Hogg’s dodgy hip).
• Bad luck – sometimes you can look for reasons for something where their isn’t a logical explanation. It could just be as simple as a series of unlucky events combining at the wrong time. There will always be the odd injury here and there but maybe we’ve just a lot happen together out of sheer misfortune.