Lee Nicholls is hoping for a turn of fortune at Huddersfield Town

Dizziness which saw Matty Pearson pull out of the warm-up for Tuesday’s win over Preston North End and the heart palpitations which ended Danny Ward’s night at half-time are just the latest ways the Terriers have found to be without key players this year.

Both have been given the all-clear to feature at Sheffield United today after scans, with coach Carlos Corberan speculating Ward’s problems might have come from getting into the habit of too much caffeine to gee himself up for behind-closed-doors games, something the Blades’ Oli McBurnie recently told The Yorkshire Post he had been doing too.

By 2021 standards, Nicholls’s absence was more routine but even more demoralising for 
him.

From the moment this season’s fixtures came out, Nicholls would have been desperate to play at Pride Park on the opening day, a chance to finally show what he could do in the Championship, six years after conceding three goals during his seventh and at that stage last second-tier appearance.

He warmed up with a clean sheet and two penalty saves in a League Cup shoot-out win over Sheffield Wednesday. In the press room afterwards Corberan confirmed he would start at Derby.

Five days later, Nicholls tested positive for Covid-19.

“I was gutted,” he admits. “You work hard in pre-season, seven weeks build-up to that Derby game and you’re thinking, ‘This is it.’”

How much his team missed him was stark last week, Ryan Schofield conceding five goals on an afternoon which started with him making a hash of an awful backpass, then Nicholls returning to keep a clean sheet in a 1-0 win.

The senior man knows what Schofield is going through.

“It happens,” he says. “I could show you clips of me as a young lad making a mistake for Wigan (against Zulte Waregem) in the Europa League in one of Wigan’s biggest ever games. It’s just about getting through those moments and learning from them.

“Ryan’s genuinely a top keeper, a top lad and he maybe just needs to take a step back and learn about himself.

“I’m his biggest fan, he’s my biggest fan.”

There is always a route back, but hopefully Schofield’s is not as long as Nicholls’s.

“When I was at Wigan I played nine games (early in 2013-14) but from then on I didn’t really get the opportunity I would have liked,” he reflects. “Wigan was a great club who were great with me so I don’t have anything against them but I knew I maybe had to drop down or go to a different club.

“MK (Dons) gave me that chance. I hope I repaid them by being loyal and not leaving when I could have and just being consistent.

“It’s always been something I’ve looked at further on down the line I wanted to challenge myself again by going back to the Championship and see if I could hold down a position there.”

Now, finally, he has that chance.