Martin Drury has revealed he took a back seat during Tuesday's Football League Trophy 4-0 victory over Liverpool Under-21s because he had fractured two ribs shouting too much in training.

As the Terriers only needed to avoid a big defeat to guarantee their place at the top of Group A, it was no great shock to see Drury watching from the stands but the reason he gave afterwards was a surprise.

"I've got two fractured ribs from shouting in training," revealed the head coach. “I've been told to try not to shout for a few days so I took a step back (on Tuesday) with full confidence that everything would be in the right place.

"Jon (Stead) and Dale (Tonge) took the group and everyone's been excellent – as they have all season.

"And full credit to the players to respond from Saturday (when the highest-ranked team in the competition went out of the FA Cup to Exeter City), which was disappointing."

Tonge is an experienced coach, with spells at former clubs Barnsley and Rotherham United included on his CV, but has never been a manager. Former Towns striker Stead was co-manager with Drury when the pair took interim charge last spring, but became the assistant when the pair were kept on in the summer.

Drury will at least get some rest at the weekend, with Huddersfield's scheduled game at Wycombe Wanderers postponed due to international call-ups.

"I've just got to stop shouting," he said. "I'm going to try and get some pain relief injections over the next few weeks."

TOO MUCH SHOUTING: Huddersfield Town's Martin Drury, left with assistant Dale Tonge (Image: Jonathan Gawthorpe)

placeholder image — TOO MUCH SHOUTING: Huddersfield Town's Martin Drury, left with assistant Dale Tonge (Image: Jonathan Gawthorpe)

Meanwhile, defender Radinio Balker hopes this season's three-week international break will be the last of its kind, saying it is bad for players. This month reverts to the more normal two-week break.

Balker, who is in the Suriname squad for Thursday's friendly in Lithuania, came home early in the last break to play at Burton Albion, but still felt his time with his country caused the adductor injury he then picked up on his return.

"I wasn't away for the 16 days that my other team-mates had, but it was a long time," he commented. "You're gone from your normal situation where you have your routine and everything.

"I was only gone for eight days, or nine days, I think. To me, that sounds more realistic, because I came back and I think the injury I endured was probably because of all the travel and being away from my normal routine.

INTERNATIONAL CALL: Huddersfield Town's Radinio Balker (Image: Jonathan Gawthorpe)

"I can only imagine that my team-mates had similar situations back in Suriname when they came back."

The break wreaked havoc with the League On fixture list, with games organised for both weekends, but postponed if clubs had three or more international call-ups. In the first weekend, that caused call-offs for all five Yorkshire teams in the division, who have had to find new dates for those fixtures.

"I would say two weeks or ten days is probably best," said Balker. "I did understand why they did it this year, because they just had the World Cup, of course.

"So I don't think they will do it more often than this, because there was a lot of complaining about it, but, yeah, the two weeks that is coming is probably better, for sure."