Huddersfield Town assess Manchester United loanee Joel Pereira mentally and Josh Koroma physically ahead of Wycombe Wanderers

The 24-year-old goalkeeper on loan from Manchester United had a difficult Terriers debut, letting a goal through his legs and caught out playing in his own area during Saturday's 4-3 defeat to Stoke City.

So coach Corberan was looking to see how the Portuguese reacted in Monday's training, but having showed his physical preparedness after taking a kick to the ribs which saw him substituted after 59 minutes, Josh Koroma's involvement will hang on a scan.

Pereira was playing because first-choice Ben Hamer had to isolate after contact with a covid sufferer, and he will be missing again at Adams Park.

“Of course when you play your first game and you concede four goals as a keeper, the first one that is not happy is the keeper – not because he's responsible but because no goalkeeper likes to concede goals,” said Corberan.

“Joel is a very demanding goalkeeper and he has the skills to play better than he did the other day, that's why he's here with us and this is what he expect from him.

“If we played the game against Stoke City again, I would (still) pick Joel Pereira, without any doubt because he had all the qualities to solve the problems we might face. Games don't always work in a perfect way for them and they're not always able to solve those problems.

“Keeper is a special position because they know if they make a mistake there is no one else to (get them out of trouble), that's why they need to have special characters but we need to analyse the game too and make a decision thinking about each game.

“I haven't made a decision on any players right now. I'm watching how they react in training and we're preparing for the game with different options.”

Ryan Schofield was on the bench on Saturday having recently broken his thumb.

Striker Koroma is Town's only fitness doubt, with the game coming too soon for Alex Pritchard and Pipa.

“He tried to win a ball at one of the corners and took a kick in the ribs so he was playing with a little bit of pain,” said Corberan of Koroma.

“We could see he wasn't playing in the way he normally does so that's why we decided to make a sub. He's had a scan and we'll wait to see what happens.

“Sometimes you need to know how to manage the pain and try to play football.

“I analyse a lot how players perform in training and Koroma was very positive in training on Monday, we are just waiting for the result of his scan to see that we are not taking any risk of injury if we ask him to play.

“Pipa is in the last stage of his recovery. He had a problem with his hamstring and he's continuing to work with the medical staff. We hope if we don't have him on Saturday (at home to Middlesbrough) we will have him for the next game (at Cardiff City).”

Huddersfield are still without midfielder Alex Vallejo, who joined as a free agent a month ago, but needs more conditioning work before Corberan will be satisfied he can play in the Championship.

“We're working in a very specific way with Alex because he's gone a long time without playing,” he said. “That's something we accept and that's why he is with us.

“We trust in his potential and we want to adapt him to the demands of the Championship.

“We don't want to play people until they are ready to face it in the perfect way to help the team so he's following a specific plan with the physical coaches because we know when he arrived from Spain he had to spend 14 days in quarantine. What we are doing with him is like a pre-season to allow his behaviours and his body to respond to the demands of the Championship.

“We are using the B team games to give him more minutes. He won't be involved in the squad on Tuesday but if everything goes well he will play 90 minutes with the B team and that will help us to analyse where he is, and help him to be more ready to compete.

“His reaction to the work is very good, he's a very good professional player and very ambitious and he will do his level best to help the team as much as possible.”

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