Jon Russell, Kaine Kesler-Hayden and Luke Mbete handed positive message by Huddersfield Town chief Mark Fotheringham

Luke Mbete and Kaine Kesler-Hayden were not in the match-day squad after featuring in the previous game at Luton, while Jon Russell - who played in Fotheringham's first match at Reading - has not been involved since that trip to Berkshire.

Fotheringham, whose side visit Rotherham United on Saturday, says that those decisions - and any future ones regarding available players not being involved in match-day - were taken due to his observations of performances in training.

He said: "It is not a case of me dropping players. What it is, is that I have got a really good squad here and I just want everyone to know, in the respect of the players, that you have to be competitive every single day in the training.

"As soon as you drop off from that level, there could be a chance that you are not involved.

"The players want to be involved so much and everything that they do is about getting that shirt on and showing the fans what they can do on a Saturday. When they have not got that, it is not a nice feeling.

"I have been in that situation myself as a player and I hated it. That's probably why I had so many clubs and people spoke about me being a 'journeyman'.

"But it was more to do (with) that when I was a guy who was not playing games, I almost felt 'I'm here to play football and getting paid to play football and they are paying me to do something I am not actually doing'.

"I just want to create a culture here where everyone knows that they can be involved. But they (players) have to come with that winning mentality and have to show me that they have got that fire in the stomach every day and that burning desire to go and do that.

"As we are here to win and are not just here to play for the sake of it. It has got to be like that every day.

"They could easily come back in and that's the way it’s going to be."