Stoke City rocked by injury blow ahead of crunch Hull City clash
Stoke City have been rocked by a possible major injury blow ahead of their Friday night showdown with Hull City at the bet365 Stadium.
Lynden Gooch limped out of Saturday's 1-0 defeat at Oxford United and left the Kassam Stadium with his leg in a protective brace after a block tackle in the first half.
Steven Schumacher, who has since been sacked by the Potters, revealed afterwards that the prognosis didn't look overly positive for the American, who operated in an attacking midfield role against the newly-promoted U's before picking up his injury.
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"It doesn't look good," Schumacher said before leaving the club on Monday. "He's in a brace at the moment. It was a block tackle and it opened up. Sometimes that can look like a medial ligament and that's what it feels like it was. It's unfortunate."
Stoke's third defeat in the opening five games left the Potters three points above the Tigers who were beaten on Friday night at home to Sheffield United and struggled to fashion chances for deadline day signing Tom Cannon, a player City pushed hard to try and sign from Leicester before he opted to sign for the Staffordshire club.
"He lacked any service," Schumacher continued. "We had no real quality when we got into the final third to pick people out. Space wasn't really there for him to run into because of how congested the game was and it was a game that got away from us. For him, himself, he hasn't played any football, only minimal minutes in pre-season for Leicester so not to expect too much too soon but 70 minutes will do him good."
Before the visit of the Tigers on Friday, Stoke host Fleetwood Town in the third round of the Carabao Cup on Tuesday night in the first game post-Schumacher's exit, and will be overseen by Ryan Shawcross who has been placed in caretaker charge.
"We must do because today, the whole 90 minutes, not just the second half, we didn't play to the standard we can," the now departed boss said. "The team we pick on Tuesday has to be a team that responds and tries to put that right because we want to get into the next round of the cup. We've got to get back to looking more like us. That wasn't the case today. It's a big game on Tuesday and one we have to do better in."