Carlos Corberan says Huddersfield Town are exploring free market agent with Terriers a striker light

Mooted moves for Kayden Jackson and Josip Drmic failed to materialise, and although Sorba Thomas and Danny Grant were bought in January, both are seen as players for the long-term, not the here and now, having arrived from the Conference and League of Ireland respectively.

It leaves Fraizer Campbell and the injury-prone Danny Ward as the only options. Ward has started just three league games since returning to the club and will not feature at Luton Town in Saturday's Championship game, although coach Corberan is hopeful he might rejoin training with the group on Tuesday.

Even Josh Koroma, who filled in there at times earlier in the season, is injured for the next couple of months.

Although the transfer window closed on Monday, clubs can sign free agents, and the Terriers will again look into this possibility. After October's window closed they picked up midfielder Alex Vallejo.

“I see a club continuing to think about how we can improve our squad,” said Corberan, who deals with coaching, not recruitment.

“We are analysing all the options we can find to try to continue making the team stronger.

“We are not only looking at the summer, we are thinking about right now. We know it is totally different now because the only players we can add are free agent players but we are continually thinking about how we can improve the team because it's one of the targets we have.

“When you sign a player who was playing for another team it's not easy because you need to find agreement with the clubs and with the players.

“You need to analyse every option you have. Right now the market is closed and the only options we have are free agents.

“We know it's not the same depending on where it's short time, a medium time or a long time since they had a club because it means the player doesn't have the habit of playing games or training in a group. Nowadays a lot of players have the habit to work by themselves and they care about their physical condition but it's never the same.

“A free agent is going to need a little bit more time.

“At the same time we know our reality now is to look at this type of market if we feel we need to improve this position.

“As a coach I always want to be focused on the players I have to work with and for me one of the positive (bits of) news from the transfer window was that I kept players like (Harry) Toffolo, (Lewis) O'Brien, Campbell, Pipa and Naby Sarr. I feel proud to work with these players.”

Huddersfield have now been linked with out-of-contract former Everton player Oumar Niasse, a rumour Corberan was not prepared to comment on.

Encouragingly, Corberan expects to have midfielder Jonathan Hogg fit and starting at Kenilworth Road after injury.

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