Huddersfield Town midfielder Dean Whitehead will speak to head coach David Wagner over the coming weeks before deciding the next step in his career.

The former Stoke City man - who signed for Town on a free transfer from Middlesbrough in 2015 and has six months left on his contract at the John Smith's Stadium - turns 36 on Friday and is debating whether to continue playing football or make the move into coaching.

Whitehead admits that prolonging his playing career would result in a move down the divisions, but is weighing up whether to take the step down or make use of the coaching licences he has already completed.

The central midfielder told talkSport: "I'll be speaking to the boss over the next two or three weeks to get a feeling of what's in my mind and what's in his mind and we'll go from there.

"I'm really enjoying my time here, although I'm coming to the end of my time, but you got to enjoy it while it's there."

He added: "I've done my B licence and A licence and I enjoy coaching and I'd like to be a manager one day - that would be good.

"But at the moment I'm just concentrating on playing football.

"Any player wants to play on for as long as they can.

"I'm 36 this week and the Premier League is becoming harder to play in at an older age.

"It's faster and everyone is quicker, stronger, younger and it's difficult, but I just need to decide whether I want to drop down divisions or dip into the coaching side of things."

Huddersfield's Joe Lolley and Dean Whitehead in action Carabao Cup Football Huddersfield Town v Rotherham United 23/08/17 (Pic by John Rushworth) Football Images are covered by DataCo licence agreements. For Editorial Use Only No Free Use permitted.

Whitehead went on to speak about his time at Town and what it has been like to play under Wagner.

He said: "We pretty much didn't know anything about him when he first came.

"But he's come into the football club and he's transformed the whole place.

"He's been given the whole run of the club by the chairman to sort out what he wants, what players he wants to come in and as it's gone on the team has improved, the club has developed and at the moment we're sitting nicely in the Premier League.

"For our club that is something special."

Although Town find themselves 11th in the top flight, the Terriers are just four points above the relegation zone and two above this weekend's opponents, West Ham United.

But Whitehead is confident the "hungry" Town squad have what it takes to succeed in the Premier League.

"We're under no illusions - we know what position we are in and what our targets are," he said.

"But we've got a young, talented squad that is hungry to prove and succeed in this division.

"Whatever game is in front of us, the boss will give us a game plan and we'll try and follow it as best we can, which we've been doing pretty well this year."