Influential midfielder Lewis Baker has undergone an operation for an ankle spur and has been badly missed since his injury on November 9.
Lewis Baker and Ben Pearson have been ruled out of Stoke City’s squad for the trip to Hull City on New Year’s Day.
Key Stoke City midfielder Baker required an operation to address an ankle spur that developed just as he appeared close to making his comeback.
He has been sorely missed by Stoke since Brandon Thomas-Asante landed on the back of his leg during Stoke’s clash with Coventry on November 9.
A 2-1 loss to Sheffield United marked the ninth match he has sat out while Junior Tchamadeu (AFCON), Aaron Cresswell (calf) and Eric Bocat (knee) were also unavailable against the Blades.
Tchamadeu and Cresswell had been virtual ever-presents during Stoke’s impressive campaign start, but they have managed just two victories from their last 10 outings.
The Potters also lost Ben Pearson against Chris Wilder’s men, after he picked up a red card for taking out Patrick Bamford and he will now be banned for the trip to the MKM Stadium.
Stoke boss Mark Robins said: “It’ll turn, it will turn, there is no two ways about it. I’ve said before, I can push and push and push and push and if it’s not there it will break.
“We’ve lost key players. We’ve lost Junior over to AFCON, we’ve got two left-backs out injured, we’ve got Lewis Baker out, who’s had surgery today and will be out for four weeks. All these things have an impact on us, all of them.
“When you have an influential player who is out of the side that can have a huge impact and that’s what’s happened.”, reports Stoke on Trent Live.
“I’m not complaining about it but those are the facts. I’m still trying to find ways of improving our chance creation and conversion, and it’s really challenging, really challenging to do. I’ve said before, I could solve the problem with about £40m but we’re playing real Championship football, not fantasy.”
Robins acknowledged that the lack of a substantial budget makes finding solutions more difficult, but not impossible.
He stated: “I’m trying to find a solution but trying to do it without the core team who started the season – and also with a couple of players not quite fitting their roles at the moment. I thought both (Bosun Lawal and Ben Gibson) performed quite well tonight against good wingers.
“From my perspective, it was a really disappointing result, a decent last half hour but we have to improve in key moments and we can’t lose games at set plays.”
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