Pritch battle may carry on under Carlos

is back fit and available, they have appointed a head coach who will reportedly look to revert to a 4-3-3.

Not that Pritchard needs a tactical change to look like a bit of an odd man out at the John Smith’s Stadium. The midfielder was renowned as one of the best attacking talents in the Championship

prior to his arrival at the club in January 2018.

That move finally saw him get the regular Premier League football his talents had long suggested he was ready for, first in a truly outstanding loan spell at Brentford in 2014/15 that saw him named in the PFA Championship Team of the Year, and then later for Norwich City following his permanent transfer from Tottenham.

Perhaps it has simply been a matter of bad timing for Pritchard that he arrived in West Yorkshire just before Town began a downward slide that we still cannot definitively say has come to a complete stop, just as it was bad timing that his long-standing knee cyst suddenly flared up painfully just when his side needed his creative talents most.

Whatever the factors behind it, it has never quite happened for Pritchard at Huddersfield. The large price tag that brought him to the club is not his fault, and he is certainly not regarded as anything like the transfer flop that some of his teammates are, but there is a certain indifference towards the playmaker from the Terriers faithful that is the inevitable result of having spent the last two-anda-half years of never quite living up to the hype.

Pritchard is already into the final year of his contract at the John Smith’s Stadium, albeit with the asterisk that the club may trigger a one-year extension.

On paper, here is a player who, at 27, should still retain a decent resale value should the club wish to move him on, playing under a head coach whose stated system does not include Pritchard’s preferred position whatsoever.

The large price tag that brought Pritchard to the club is not his fault and he is certainly not regarded as a flop