Stoke City injury news and loan recall rule explained as Leicester keeper quits
News from the bet365 Stadium as Stoke City prepare for Championship away game at Sunderland
Josh Laurent has been the only senior player left in the Stoke City treatment room as the injury backlog clears up.
Enda Stevens has now been back in training for a couple of weeks building up fitness after more than a month out while Lynden Gooch made his return from a calf injury with a bright cameo against Birmingham at the weekend. Captain Laurent has been stepping up his recovery from a high ankle sprain and is hoping to be back in contention in the next couple of weeks.
Junior Tchamadeu is also absent at the moment, away with Cameroon on African Cup of Nations duty. They have a group game decider against the Gambia tomorrow, almost certainly needing a win to secure passage to the knock out rounds.
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It is also worth addressing some injury news across the Midlands and what ramifications it will or won’t have on Stoke considering what has already happened once this season.
Leicester goalkeeper Alex Smithies, aged 33, has today announced his retirement from football due to a run of persistent injuries but that shouldn’t have a bearing on Daniel Iversen’s stay at Stoke, barring an unlikely turn of events.
Stoke supporters will remember that Mark Travers was recalled from loan by parent club Bournemouth when had a keeper crisis and Darren Randolph and Neto were simultaneously ruled out with illness and injury while 22-year-old Cameron Plain wasn’t registered for their senior squad. Travers was sent back as cover for Ionut Radu and has spent the last three months sitting on the bench.
In the Championship, a club can recall a goalkeeper from loan if they are left with only one professional keeper available. Leicester still have three senior keepers fit and well: number one Mads Hermansen, back-up Jakub Stolarczyk and third choice Danny Ward, who has been linked with a move to Sheffield United this month. Brad Young, aged 21, is their under-21s keeper but hasn’t played the necessary five or more first team matches to be counted as a professional keeper in EFL terminology.
The EFL rulebook says: “A loan goalkeeper may be subject to a recall clause only a) in extenuating circumstances and with the consent of the league, such extenuating circumstances to be determined in the league’s absolute discretion; or b) where the club seeking to exercise the recall has only one professional goalkeeper available
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