Not even Kevin Nagle saw this Huddersfield Town issue coming in 2025 - it contributed to Michael Duff's sacking | OneFootball

The failure to replace defender Michal Helik following his move to Oxford United contributed to Michael Duff's downfall at Huddersfield Town.

Huddersfield Town are once again on the hunt for a new permanent manager following the sacking of Michael Duff.

Duff only took over at Huddersfield in the summer following their relegation from the Championship, and his side had spent much of the season in the play-off places in League One.

However, the Terriers dropped out of the top six after suffering their fourth defeat in five league games as they were beaten 1-0 at Bristol Rovers on Saturday, and that prompted owner Kevin Nagle into action.

Academy manager Jon Worthington, who had a successful four-game spell as interim boss last season following the dismissal of Darren Moore, will take charge until the end of the campaign, with his first game coming against struggling Crawley Town at the John Smith's Stadium on Saturday.

Huddersfield currently sit seventh in the table, and they are only two points from the play-offs, so their promotion dreams are very much still alive, but as Nagle begins the search for his fifth permanent manager in just 18 months since his takeover last summer, he must take some responsibility for Duff's downfall.

Kevin Nagle's Michal Helik comments have come back to haunt him

It was a busy January transfer window for Huddersfield, and the signings of big-money strikers Joe Taylor and Dion Charles grabbed the headlines, but the club also sold star defender Michal Helik to Oxford United.

Helik joined the Terriers from Barnsley in the summer of 2022, and in addition to the defensive solidity he brought to the back line, he also frequently chipped in with goals at the other end, netting 13 goals in 100 appearances during his time at the John Smith's Stadium.

After Helik remained with Town in the summer following relegation, Nagle made an agreement with the 29-year-old to sell him if he received a suitable bid from a Championship club, and that offer duly arrived from Oxford in January.

Nagle admitted that he was reluctant to block Helik's move to the Kassam Stadium, and with Matty Pearson, Tom Lees, Nigel Lonwijk and Radinio Balker still on the books, the Huddersfield chief expressed his confidence that the club had enough depth at centre-back to cope with the Poland international's departure.

"I know that people were a little bit concerned in the fact that we let Michal Helik go, that was something that really was decided that if he had an opportunity to go to the Championship league, we wouldn’t block that, and the fact of the matter is it did," Nagle told Yorkshire Live.

"He’s been phenomenal to us, we need to be supportive of him, and so that decision was made. Could we have kept him on a one-year option? It’s just not fair if you did. The reality of it is that we made the agreement at the time.

"As you may know, what happens when we move from Championship to League One, everybody’s salaries get cut in half. Michal is also at an age where he doesn’t probably have a lot of years left playing football, and so we wanted to maximise that. He did a great job for us, but also at the same time, I think we’re staffed up pretty well on the side of the defence to really help us."

It is easy to see why Nagle felt that the Terriers were well-stocked in defence at the time of Helik's exit, but given the injury crisis that has unfolded in the subsequent weeks, he may now be regretting his comments.

Huddersfield may still have had four centre-backs at the club after selling Helik, but defensive options have now become incredibly stretched.

Pearson, Lees, Lonwijk and Balker are all currently sidelined, and Lonwijk has been ruled out for the rest of the season with a hamstring injury, while Lees could also miss the final two months of the campaign after sustaining a knee problem.

In what proved to be his last game in charge at Bristol Rovers on Saturday, Duff was forced to field full-backs Ollie Turton, Brodie Spencer and Josh Ruffels in a makeshift back three, underlining just how depleted the squad has become.

It is no coincidence that the Terriers have kept just two clean sheets in their last 12 games, and while Nagle did acknowledge the "unprecedented injury situation" in the statement announcing Duff's sacking, it could be argued that it was unfair to part company with him while so many of his key players were unavailable.

There is little that Town could have done to prevent Helik's departure, but the failure to replace him now looks like a costly mistake, and Nagle could be accused of underestimating just how much of a loss he would be for the club.

Huddersfield have failed to score in seven of their last 11 matches, and given that Helik was their top scorer last season with nine goals, he may have been able to contribute with some crucial goals during that period, which could have even saved Duff's job.

Of course, the Terriers cannot be reliant on a defender for goals, and they need their attacking players to step up in the coming months under Worthington if they are to salvage their season, but there is no doubt that Helik has been missed at the John Smith's Stadium more than anyone could have anticipated.