Friday 22 January 2016 14:22, UK
Mark Hughes is "actively looking" for potential new signings this month, but Burnley's Michael Keane will not be one of them.
The Stoke boss flatly denied reports of a move for the former Manchester United defender as he gave an update on the club's January transfer plans.
But Hughes stopped short of ruling out an interest in three other players - West Brom striker Saido Berahino, Shane Long of Southampton and Porto's Belgian-born midfielder Giannelli Imbula.
Asked about Keane, Hughes said: "I'm not quite sure where that's come from. My understanding is that is not true."
And on the other three, he said: "All good players, all at good clubs, and the clubs they are at will probably feel they want to keep them there."
Southampton boss Ronald Koeman has ruled out selling Long this month, and West Brom say they are yet to receive any firm bids for Berahino despite interest from several clubs, but Hughes is not closing the door on possible deals.
He said: "It is inappropriate for me to talk about individual players, other than to say we're in the market for good players. We are actively looking. We think there are opportunities if everything falls into place, but there are a lot of factors.
"We never get too ahead of ourselves because we know the potential pitfalls of the transfer process. We just have to be patient. If it happens, we'll be delighted. If we have to bide our time until the summer, so be it."
In the meantime Hughes will assess injuries to Xherdan Shaqiri and Marko Arnautovic ahead of Saturday's trip to Leicester.
Shaqiri is back in training after a hamstring problem while Arnautovic is carrying a similar complaint.
"Shaqiri trained on Thursday so we're hopeful he won't get a reaction and then I'll make a decision as to whether he's ready," Hughes said. "Obviously he's anxious to get back in.
"Marko has a slight hamstring problem that we are managing, but we have to be careful with that. We have this big period coming up, so we'll have to see. He has trained. There's a little bit of an issue there, but he has carried it for a number of weeks and still played, so he should be okay.
"Geoff Cameron still has an issue with his ankle and we are trying to resolve that, but it is not progressing too quickly, so we'll need to investigate that further."
