Huddersfield Town digest: Injury news and predicted line-up for Preston cup clash
Goodison Park awaits for the Terriers' first competitive game of the 2026/27 season as tehy tackle the Carabao Cup first round
What’s been said
You can read our selected highlights and listen along to the entirety of Martin Drury’s press conference — as well as Ryan Ledson’s thoughts— right here on We Are Terriers shortly.
Coming up next
The tale of Preston North End’s 2025/26 season is a bit too familiar for comfort. The Lancashire side spent over half a season in the top six, only to hit on a poor run of form after the turn of the new year and and up finishing in 14th.
Paul Heckingbottom is now hoping his side can sustain things better in the season ahead, although new faces at Deepdale are so far limited.
Playmaker Alfie Devine has arrived in a £6m move from Tottenham after impressing on loan last season, while Swedish striker Jusef Erabi has come in on a season-long loan.
Their other two signings need no introduction to Town fans: Lee Nicholls made a permanent move earlier this summer, while Delano Burgzorg arrived on loan from Middlesbrough on Friday.
We’ll have our full reaction to Saturday’s game for our paying subscribers by no later than first thing on Sunday morning, followed by further reaction in Monday morning’s podcast. Get signed up if you’re not already.
Huddersfield Town injuries and absences
Murray Wallace fractured his hand playing against Fleetwood and is ruled out for Preston, but is expected back in the next couple of weeks, potentially as early as against Wimbledon on the opening day.
Bojan Radulovic, Herbie Kane and Cameron Ashia have not played a part in any of Town’s pre-season friendlies.
Radulovic has been in training this week and is unlikely to feature on Saturday, but is hoped to be available for selection against Wimbledon.
Kane has had a setback in his recovery from the hamstring injury he picked up on loan at Plymouth last season, but that setback is ‘not as bad as first feared’ and he is now back in individual training again and will ‘not be too long’
Ashia ended last season with a groin injury and returned in good physical condition, but ‘the injury is not quite where it needed to be’ and Ashia remains out of contention for the time being.
Catch up on our scouting reports: Ashley Fletcher | Matty Young | Ethan Brierley | Ilias Bronkhorst | Derensili Sanches Fernandes | Ibane Bowat
Predicted line-up to face Preston North End
It’s always difficult to predict the first game of the campaign, let alone when it’s in the cup, but we’re going to take a stab at the following in the full expectation we might well be way off….
3-4-3: Matty Young; Radinio Balker, Joe Low, Ibane Bowat; Ilias Bronkhorst, Ryan Ledson, Ethan Brierley, Bali Mumba; Derensili Sanches Fernandes, Ashley Fletcher, Marcus Harness.
Substitutes: Jak Alnwick, Jack Whatmough, Sean Roughan, Lasse Sorensen, David Kasumu, Marcus McGuane, Tom Iorpenda, Joe Taylor, George Sebine.