Tom Lees makes Huddersfield Town return among first-teamers in cup line-up vs Newcastle United
The centre-back has been sidelined so far this season but will get important minutes under his waistband as part of the B team side in action in the Premier League Cup
Tom Lees will get his first minutes of the season after being selected as one of the over-age players in the B team side for Wednesday evening’s Premier League Cup meeting with Newcastle United.
One of three players to play every minute for Neil Warnock last season – alongside Jack Rudoni and Michal Helik – centre-back Lees missed pre-season with a calf injury and then suffered a separate back injury shortly before the actual season began.
Lees is named in the Huddersfield Town side to face Newcastle alongside fellow first-teamers Chris Maxwell, Yuta Nakayama, Josh Austerfield and Kyle Hudlin. Primarily an under-21 competition, the Premier League Cup allows sides to field an over-age goalkeeper and up to five over-age outfield players.
Huddersfield Town line-up to face Newcastle United: Chris Maxwell; Mustapha Olagunju, Tom Lees, Yuta Nakayama; Neo Eccleston, Josh Austerfield, Tom Iorpenda, Luke Daley; Hazeem Bakre, Kyle Hudlin, Charles Ondo. Substitutes: Francis Hurl, David Adewoju, Omari Mrisho, Myles Bright, Cian Philpott.
Town and Newcastle have been drawn together in the group stage alongside Fleetwood and Nottingham Forest, with the four sides playing each other round robin style – games home and away against each other – and the top two teams in each group progressing to the knockout stages.
Japanese international defender Nakayama has been working his way back from a serious Achilles injury suffered last November and made his first league appearance of the campaign on the eve of the current international break, coming on for a final few minutes of the victory over West Bromwich Albion.
Maxwell was signed as back-up to first-choice goalkeeper Lee Nicholls this summer, while Austerfield and Hudlin were each deemed too important to the first-team squad to go out on loan this season. All three appeared in last month’s Carabao Cup defeat to Middlesbrough, while Austerfield also came off the bench against Norwich City in the Championship.
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