Stoke captain Ryan Shawcross closes on return to first-team action
Thursday 8 October 2015 13:09, UK
Stoke captain Ryan Shawcross is closing on a return to first-team action after coming through 45 minutes of U21s action on Wednesday.
The centre-back made his first appearance since a summer operation to fix a long-standing back problem.
He came through one half of the Potters U21s' 1-1 draw at Port Vale.
Shawcross told The Sentinel: "It was always planned to play 45 minutes. I've got a few niggles just from coming back so I need to let them settle down and hopefully I can kick on again next week.
"I felt good. It's just a case of building on it now. Hopefully next week I can get a 70-minute game in and then move on to a full game in the coming weeks.
"It's up to the manager (Mark Hughes) to see when I can get back involved. I haven't trained with the first team yet so I'll look forward to doing that.
"But I will stay with the U21s for probably another week or so. It's all about game time and then we'll see after that. At the moment I'm trying to make sure I get the right minutes and the training between them is right.
"It's a relief after quite a while of being impinged that I can move freely. My day to day life has been a lot better and it's been quite nice. I can pick up my kids again.
"It had got to the stage where it was getting a bit silly. The right decision was made. Unfortunately I've missed a bit of football but it had to be done."
