Stoke City are down to five fit defenders for the trip to Chelsea on Saturday after Phil Bardsley was ruled out.
The former Manchester United full-back limped out of Wednesday’s win over Newcastle with a calf injury.
He joins Ryan Shawcross (back) and Glen Johnson and Marc Wilson (both knee ligaments) on the sidelines, while Geoff Cameron – who has only just returned from injury – is a doubt after aggravating an ankle problem against the Magpies.
Marc Muniesa, who replaced Bardsley, had only just recovered from a hamstring injury.
Stoke boss Mark Hughes said: “We have five fit defenders in the building at the moment and a couple of them aren’t fully fit.
“Phil [Bardsley] has pulled his calf, so he’s going to be out for a number of weeks.
“Geoff Cameron is really sore again, but we suspected that would be the case after two games in a short space of time.”
This post was last modified on 03/03/2016