Huddersfield Town keen to retain Rennes target Steve Mounie

Mounie, a target of French outfit Rennes, scored a stoppage-time winner for Town in Tuesday’s priceless win at Hull – one of a handful of key contributions he has provided since Christmas.

Town’s quest to bring in another creative signing will hinge on getting a squad player – most likely Isaac Mbenza or Herbert Bockhorn – to leave for pastures new, with Cowley also anxious that the window passes with Mounie still in the colours of Huddersfield.

He said: “We certainly hope so. He (Mounie) is important to us.

“Steve is a consummate professional and trains so hard. He was disappointed last week and a little bit unlucky not be involved or come on in the Brentford game.

“But he is in every day and always training to his best and always wants to work on his game and scored a really important goal and it was a good assist from Kacha (Elias Kachunga) as well.

“He is a goalscoring targetman and they do not make many of those any more.

“He is a goal threat and what we want to do is bring in one who helps him.

“If we can do that, it would be brilliant. But we are respectful of a difficult transfer window.

“It is like buying a house and you end up being in a chain – unless you are at the top of that chain and you can get it on your terms.

“Ultimately, we are looking to get one out. But the one (club) we are looking to get one in from is trying to get a player in themselves. It is a game of chess.”

Meanwhile, Cowley has praised the mentality of his players after witnessing the worrying scenes which saw play stopped for 12 minutes after keeper Kamil Grabara was temporarily knocked unconscious after colliding with Chris Schindler.

Loan keeper Kamil Grabara was due to stay in hospital for a second night after suffering a head injury and suspected concussion after colliding with team-mate Christopher Schindler in the second half of Tuesday evening’s 2-1 win at Hull City.

Grabara was attended to by medics for around 12 minutes following the incident in the 71st minute and was stretchered off in a neck brace.

He was taken by ambulance to Hull Royal Infirmary where he stayed overnight for observation and was due to spend a second evening in East Yorkshire – with a view to being released on Thursday morning.

Cowley added: “As you can imagine, it was an emotional moment when they saw one of their team-mates down injured with the way he was and for them to take on the information and implement it in the way they did was credit to them.”