Huddersfield Town's Pipa managing the pain as Alex Vallejo faces Bournemouth fitness test

The Spanish midfielder took a kick to the head at Brentford, and has missed the two games since. The Terriers will now assess if he is fit to play against the Cherries as relegation-threatened Huddersfield look for their first win in five matches.

Compatriot Pipa is likely to play, but Corberan is having to be careful with him as he manages a groin problem. The full-back sat out the 7-0 defeat at Norwich and was withdrawn early in the second half against Rotherham United, and his coach says the 23-year-old is learning to manage his body after his most strenuous season as a professional.

“We still have to see if Vallejo can recover or not to see if how he reacts to the work he was doing to see if he can be in the team or not,” said Corberan. “He's the only player we have as a question mark (for Tuesday).

“With Pipa we couldn't use the international break as we would have liked for his recovery because he had a commitment with the national team (playing at the European Under-21 Championships) and I understand this.

“He's started to feel more pain and less options to play at his level.

“He's doing the prevention work he needs to because with this type of groin problem you can't stop or it's even worse. You need to do some prevention work and the fewer minutes he plays, the faster he will recover but we know he's an important player for the team so it's important he gets the recovery while playing for the team too.

“When a player has a small injury and has to learn how to manage it, it's going to affect him.

“It's not something that doesn't allow you to play but it only allows you to play with pain and when you play with pain you don't play in the same way. You lose a little bit of explosiveness in the switch of direction.

“But it's an injury that is difficult to disappear and he has had it for a long time. In this type of period it's important for players to feel comfortable with an uncomfortable feeling and if the medical staff think he can compete we will try to give him more minutes but if they think he can't, he will get the rest he needs, as he did against Norwich.

“Pipa didn't accumulate the number of minutes he's had this year in any of the last two or three.

“With Spain he's accumulated more minutes than in any season but his character and personality and now the time he has is about managing his pain to try to perform the right way for the team even when he's not 100 per cent.”

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