Injuries pushing Stoke squad to its limits - chairman Coates

Mark Hughes will be without a majority of their first-choice rearguard in Saturday's league game against Swansea City as goalkeeper Jack Butland, captain Ryan Shawcross, right-back Glen Johnson and left-back Erik Pieters are all injured.

(Reuters)

There are also doubts over key attacking duo Xherdan Shaqiri and Jon Walters as eighth-placed Stoke hope to make a late-season charge towards Europa League qualification.

"Yes, we've had a lot of injuries, especially at the back. Ryan hasn't played so many games this season and now, to cap it all, we lose our goalkeeper last weekend playing for his country," Coates told British media.

"It is a challenging run-in for us, that's certainly one way of putting it. It is a test to see where we can finish. If you look back we've really had our fair share of injuries. It is testing the strength of our squad."

(Reporting by Shravanth Vijayakumar in Bengaluru, editing by Mitch Phillips)