Huddersfield Town manager Danny Cowley has confirmed that centre-back Tommy Elphick will not play again this season after undergoing surgery on a knee ligament injury.
Huddersfield Town defender Tommy Elphick was forced off in the early stages of the Terriers’ defeat to Preston North End. Jon Gorenc Stankovic came on to replace the injured Elphick and with the score at 1-0 to Preston at the time of the injury, it went on to finish 3-1 to the LIlywhites.
After the match, Elphick underwent surgery on his injured knee and now, it has been confirmed that he will not feature again this season. Speaking to the press (quotes via Examiner Live), Cowley said:
“We’ve got a number of injury issues and they’re mounting up. For us, we always want to avoid soft tissue injuries, which you can manage, but contact injuries you can’t do so much.
“I don’t want to go into specifics before matchdays, but obviously you know about Tommy Elphick. On and off the pitch he’s a strong character and was influencing the group more and more is a big loss. He’s ruptured his medial cruciate ligament. You never like to see players go through that kind of situation but I’ve no doubt he’ll come back bigger and better.
“We’ll try to use him in the group in other capacities. He’s been coached and managed by some of the best people in football and we’ll try to use him in other capacities.
“The nature of that ligament you’re looking at nine months out straight away. We all saw the tackle that led to it. It was a reckless challenge and we were disappointed at the time it wasn’t dealt with more severely. You see what can happen with those kinds of tackles.”
Elphick had played 14 times for the club so far this season and now, Cowley will have to find a new centre-back to fill in for the rest of the campaign.
