Terriers delighted by Mooy's early return

Mar 29, 2017 - 4:34 PM Huddersfield Town manager David Wagner has welcomed Aaron Mooy's early return from Socceroos duty following his one-match suspension.

The midfielder's booking in the 1-1 draw with Iraq last week ruled him out of Tuesday's 2-0 World Cup qualifying win over the UAE in Sydney

Mooy's creative skills were badly missed by Ange Postecoglou's side in an unconvincing display at Allianz Stadium.

However, Wagner is delighted to see him back in west Yorkshire as the Terriers look to keep alive their automatic promotion push at home to Jackson Irvine's Burton Albion on Saturday.

"Aaron and we are used to handling these situations," Wagner said.

"Aaron in the last week - because he was not able to play in the cup games against Manchester City - had not so many minutes in his legs that he usually has."

The former Western Sydney and Melbourne City schemer, who's on loan from Manchester City, has been the key man in Huddersfield's surprise challenge for a return to the English top flight for the first time since 1971

He was named in the Championship's team of the year last week and looks almost certain to be playing in the Premier League next season.

Huddersfield are hopeful of re-signing Mooy, potentially again on loan, should they go up, and Middlesbrough and Southampton also made enquiries about his availability during the January transfer window.

City publicly maintain he's part of Pep Guardiola's plans and Mooy confirmed recently his parent club are keeping tabs on his progress.

"I speak to them quite regularly and they send scouts to watch the games and hopefully they are liking what they see," Mooy said.

"I don't look too much ahead, I am just focusing on Huddersfield and doing my best here."

Battling Burton are fighting for their Championship survival and hope to have top-scorer Irvine available despite a huge week that's seen him play 160 minutes of football and travel over 30,000km.

"It'll be very much on how he feels after the long flight," said manager Nigel Clough.

"He's back in the UK on Wednesday night and generally then sleeps for about 14 hours, or as long as he can after that.

"He does a little bit on Thursday and then gets ready for training on Friday.

"We'll just see how he feels. Sometimes he feels better than others getting off the plane. We leave it totally down to him."

Massimo Luongo will miss QPR's Friday night clash at Derby County, with the midfielder returning to London with the injury that kept him out of the UAE clash.

Source: AAP