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Potters fear midfielder Sawyers could be facing spell on sidelines after picking up QPR injury

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STOKE City are braced for another injury blow as Romaine Sawyers has undergone a scan on a leg muscle.

The midfielder suffered a quad injury in the 2-0 win at Queens Park Rangers on Sunday, limping out early in the second half.

He has been a fixture in the starting XI since joining Stoke on loan from West Brom and would add to an injury list already featuring Harry Souttar, Joe Bursik, Nick Powell and Jordan Thompson.

Sam Clucas, however, has returned following injury himself in time to replace Sawyers last weekend and is on standby for a return to start against Middlesbrough on Saturday.

And Tyrese Campbell, who was also taken off against QPR, is okay as he continues to build up fitness following such a long injury.

Assistant manager Dean Holden said: “I think Tyrese had got to a point physically where we had asked every player to just empty the tank and go as far as they can in the game and then we can freshen it up. That was certainly the case with Tyrese.

“Romaine is slightly different. He’s picked up a leg injury, a muscle injury, and he’s away for a scan today.

“We’ll keep our fingers crossed on that but he could be out for a while. We’ll wait on the result.

“It’s like a revolving door, unfortunately, but Clucas coming back having not played for a while, I thought was excellent.

“He gave us that energy in midfield and also a calmness on the ball at times when we regained possession.

“It’s important if we do lose one that we’ve got others to come in. We’ll see on Romaine, it doesn’t look like he’ll be back in the shortterm but we’ll wait on the result.”

Sawyers has made 14 starts and two sub appearances since joining Stoke, finding his feet having not featured at Albion since February.

The 30-year-old has been central to Michael O’neill’s plan to build the game and Holden admits he will be a big miss.

Holden said: “He certainly will. I think you can see the quality he brings. He’s got his own style, Romaine, and you trust him to open the door on the opposition.

“Mario (Vrancic) is the same. You saw against QPR, Mario’s pass threaded through the eye of a needle for Tyrese’s goal and Romaine has that quality as well.

“If we are missing Romaine for a while we’ll have to adapt like we’ve had to when we’ve lost Clukey, Joe Allen or Powelly.

“We’ve lost big players all through the season, Souttar and Thompson as well but what we will do is stick to the focus of where we want to get to and concentrate on the players who are available and keep results ticking over.”

Sam Surridge is back from a three-match suspension against Middlesbrough and Abdallah Sima is hoping to feature after returning to the bench following an awkward injury just above his ankle.

Surridge scored one and Sima got two as they picked up minutes in a 3-0 win for the under-23s against Southampton on Monday.

Holden said: “It’s important every player is ready to come in and do a job. It was a good game for us against Southampton for that reason. Sam hasn’t played for a while and Sima has been injured. For them to get confidence scoring goals and Alfie Doughty getting minutes was important.

“We don’t normally play too many first team players in those games but Monday, we felt, was needed to get them up to speed while we’re low on numbers. Everyone is firing, which is a good thing. The tempo of the training sessions was good.

“We had a low number training (on Wednesday) so we bulked it up with players from the under-23s and it’s always good to get eyes on them.”