Huddersfield Town have had some good news ahead of Saturday's League One trip to Reading, but it has been cancelled out by a major blow to Michal Helik.

Helik injured his left hamstring early in the first half of Tuesday's 2-0 defeat to Blackpool, and had to be substituted.

The former Barnsley centre-back was captaining the side in the absence of Jonathan Hogg, who was rested to the bench.

After the game coach Michael Duff revealed he felt unable to bring Hogg on as a substitute at that stage because the 35-year-old felt a groin problem during the warm-up.

If Helik's injury looks as bad as some feared, the good news is Hogg should be fit to play in Berkshire as the Terriers look to put two bad home defeats in four days behind them.

"MIscha won't be available, he looks like he's got a fairly significant hamstring (injury). The early diagnosis is probably six to eight weeks," revealed Duff.

"Hoggy's actually not as bad as we thought, it might just be a little bit of cramp or something like that. He seemed not to bad on Thursday so there's a good chance he'll be available for selection.

"He knows his body quite well and we didn't want to take the risk (on Tuesday), particularly in the second half when it didn't look like we were going to get back into the game in all honesty.

.INJURY BLOW: Huddersfield Town's Polish international centre-back Michal Helik

placeholder image — .INJURY BLOW: Huddersfield Town's Polish international centre-back Michal Helik

"He was adamant he'd done something and it looks like he hasn't."

Mikel Miller and Chris Maxwell are back in training, with the winger an option on Saturday.

Town's opponents have been beset by financial problems in recent year and fan protests are planned before the game at Reading, adding an extra dimension to the contest.

"We can't control it so we've got to prepare like the game's going to be on, we've got to prepare for the best version of Reading, a really young team," said Duff.

"They'll obviously use it to try and galvanise them as a squad and sometimes it can bring them together with that sort of adversity. They're a dangerous team.

"I know they got heavily beaten last week but some of their results have been really good. They went to Birmingham and should probably have won the game so they're a dangerous opponent.

"Ultimately we need to deliver a better performance than we have done in the last two games."