Stoke City's Xherdan Shaqiri: Ruled out again with calf injury

Shaqiri has been ruled out for Saturday's match against Leicester City after irritating his calf injury while on international duty, according to manager Mark Hughes. "Shaq is struggling with a calf again unfortunately," Hughes said. "He's had a reaction, nothing too significant, but similar to the issue he's suffered the past which has hampered him with a bit of pain - he's not quite right so is going to miss out [Saturday]. It's difficult to point a finger on what's wrong really, it's a slight issue he has with pain in his calf which causes him discomfort. It's then irritated for whatever reason which causes some fluid to arise. You then need to wait for it to dissipate to allow him to get back on track. We just need to get to the bottom of it and make sure he's available again soon."

Analysis:

Shaqiri's last Premier League appearance came back on 21 January against Manchester United, and there have been at least two times when Hughes has said the Swiss attacker is fit, only for him to be left off the 18-man match-day squad list. Jonathan Walters and Saido Berahino could keep their spots in the starting XI with Shaqiri out.