You’d expect Stoke City boss Mark Hughes to be wringing his hands at the prospect of squaring off against Liverpool with the Reds going through a terrible patch of form, but the Welshman has serious problems heading into Saturday’s meeting at Anfield with his side reeling from a sickness bug that’s swept through the dressing room.
“We’re struggling to contain it somewhat. The under-21s were hit by it earlier in the week. We tried to deal with it there and then” Hughes explained to the press ahead of the Potters trip to Merseyside this weekend. “We closed their operation down to such an extent they haven’t been in or around the building for the last three days, and they won’t be in tomorrow either.”
The Potters, who lead Liverpool by one point and one place in the Premier League table, have had their own struggles this season with a number of injuries disrupting Hughes plans — and this recent spat of illness has only exacerbated that with the boss revealing that a number of first team players have now reported to be feeling unwell.
“Unfortunately today Asmir Begovic, Geoff Cameron and Phil Bardsley reported they were feeling unwell with sickness.Phil came in and was quite prepared to train, but under the circumstances we felt he was better served by returning home” he continued with a note of resignation in his voice. “Asmir was ill overnight and didn’t report in, and Geoff was sick when he came into the building, so he went straight back. It could be the time of the year, something that’s around. We tried to sanitise the building on Wednesday, we went right through it.”
