Cristian Lopez could come into contention when Huddersfield Town host Birmingham on Saturday while out-of-favour Martin Paterson’s return to competitive action after a hand injury could be in the green of Northern Ireland.

Spanish striker Lopez has returned from a loan stint at League I Shrewsbury, where he played five times and scored his first goal in competitive English football.

While Town have given Tranmere permission to play loan pair Chris Atkinson and Liam Ridehalgh in Saturday’s FA Cup first-round tie at Accrington, they don’t want Lopez to be cup-tied, and with him no longer eligible for league games for the Shrews, brought him back to Huddersfield.

Now fans will wait to see whether the 24-year-old former Real Madrid and Valencia reserve player will add to his two substitute appearances for Town, at Nottingham Forest on the opening day of the Championship campaign, and Hull in the third round of the Capital One Cup.

Manager Mark Robins, of course, is still without 11-goal top scorer James Vaughan, who completes a three-match ban when former Town boss Lee Clark returns with third- bottom Brum, who will be boosted by the availability after injury of Manchester United loanee Jesse Lingaard.

Robins again went with Jon Stead at Wigan last Saturday , bringing teenager Danny Carr off the bench for a league debut in the 2-1 defeat.

Neither Paterson or midfielder Adam Clayton have played for Town since an alleged training-ground bust-up a fortnight ago.

It seems unlikely the pair will be involved at the John Smith’s Stadium on Saturday, but Paterson and midfielder Ollie Norwood have had Northern Ireland call-ups for the friendly against Turkey in Adana a week tomorrow.