Town suffer as Palmer gets set for long spell on sidelines

The Chelsea loanee has suffered a recurrence of the hamstring trouble that kept him out for almost four months last season.

Palmer is understood to have sustained the injury after coming off the bench in the European Championships qualifier against Holland on September 1. He then continued to train and played 70 minutes against Latvia four days later, scoring the final goal in a 3-0 triumph.

Once back at Huddersfield, the 20-year-old joined in training only to break down just five minutes into his first session.

Asked if he felt the Under-21s management should have done more to protect his player, the Terriers head coach said: “I don’t like to blame anyone. There are always so many factors that influence this injury.

“But maybe Kasey has to recognise the signs better and say that he is not able to train or ask for further investigations. I hear that he felt something after the first game and continued training.

“After that, he was further engulfed in training and then he started the next game, which didn’t really help settle down this issue. When he came back and started with us, he finished training after five minutes.

“Then we started the investigations. With the injury history he has, we had to make investigations. Then we found out he has a very big muscle injury. It is exactly the same area (as last season’s injury).

“It is not right now to give a real time frame but everything I hear suggests that it will be a few months that he will be out. This could be January – but hopefully less time. We need some further investigations. For sure he will not be back in the next six to eight weeks.”

Palmer’s likely absence is a big blow for Town. Tom Ince has started the last two games in the ‘No 10’ position but Wagner may turn to Abdelhamid Sabiri, a recent arrival from FC Nurnberg.

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