Loan and injury returnees take place in early strongest Huddersfield Town starting line-up

Selecting the best Terriers XI for next season at this stage of the summer is a largely futile endeavour, but one we want to undertake if only so we can refer back to it at the end of the transfer window and see how much it’s changed.

Naturally the uncertainty over Josh Koroma and Danny Ward’s contracts at Huddersfield Town creates a bit of an issue in assembling the side, and there’s a few injury concerns to keep in mind too – Duane Holmes and Ollie Turton, for instance.

For the sake of argument, we’re going to just include Ward and Koroma but suggest alternatives as we go, and assume that the whole squad is magically fully fit and raring to go even though the reality is likely to be otherwise.

The first four names on the teamsheet immediately point to the team shape. Obviously it’s Lee Nicholls in goal, and while there would be a decision to make between Tom Lees, Michal Helik and Matty Pearson in a back four, we’re going to sidestep that entirely by looking at how things might work in a three at the back system.

We did think about Sorba Thomas at right wing-back here but we also want to find a place for Turton, so that suggests we’re automatically going 3-4-3 and keeping a right-sided pairing that played together a lot as Town reached the play-off final last year. Remember that?

That makes Ward and Koroma the natural choices to round out the front three, and if they don’t extend their deals the next in line are Pat Jones and probably Kian Harratt ahead of Jordan Rhodes – though we’re trusting Neil Warnock’s judgement on the latter as much as anything.

Jack Rudoni needs to be in the line-up and we can’t really leave out the skipper, Jonathan Hogg, leaving just left wing-back to fill and a choice between Yuta Nakayama, Jaheim Headley and Ben Jackson. Tough, but we’ll give the most senior option the nod.