7 players out injured for Stoke apparently
Stoke City boss Tony Pulis is desperate for the transfer window to open after Thomas Sorensen became the seventh injury victim in his camp.Sorensen damaged his fingers while warming up before Saturday's 3-0 defeat at Blackburn to join Pulis' walking wounded ahead of the Boxing Day clash against Manchester United.
The Denmark international was replaced by Steve Simonsen at Ewood Park and joins a treatment room which also includes Dave Kitson, Mamady Sidibe, Andy Griffin (all knee), Salif Diao (calf), Leon Cort (groin) and Liam Lawrence (ankle).
Sorensen, awaiting results on an X-ray, could return against the Red Devils but few, if any, of the others are likely to return against the newly crowned world club champions and Pulis admitted: "We are suffering a bit at the moment, but other clubs have the same problems and you just have to get on with it.
"It would have been lovely to be able to bring in two or three players now to help us through a busy period, but the rules are the rules and we can't.
"Transfer windows help the bigger clubs with the biggest squads. They certainly don't help the smaller clubs."
Pulis has, however, been sending his scouts far and wide in the search for new recruits and he does expect a busy January.
He added: "We've had people watching players all over the world and we will be certainly trying to do some business.
"It will still be difficult for us because we are in our first season in the Premier League and people expect us to get relegated, but we will do our best.
"When we've been at full strength we've competed very well, but the injuries have affected us and we need to bring in more quality."
All but 3,000 fans in a sell-out 27,500 crowd will be roaring Stoke on and Sir Alex Ferguson is tipped to field some of his fringe players after United's exploits in Japan.
But Pulis knows his men will still be massive underdogs and must improve massively on Saturday's first-half collapse at Blackburn to stand any chance.
Stoke were also hammered 5-0 at Old Trafford last month and Pulis said: "Alex has got an enormous squad and whatever side he puts out will be packed with quality.
"First and foremost we know we will have to improve on how we played on Saturday because our defending was pretty shocking.
"Sonko's challenge to concede the penalty was like something you would see from a raw player in the second or third division.
"The other two goals we conceded were also very poor and we've got some work to do on the training ground.
"But the good thing about our players is they have great spirit and I'm confident we will have a good go on Thursday."
Stoke have slipped back to within two points of the relegation zone after failing to win any of their last four games, but Pulis remains pleased with his team's efforts so far.
He said: "We've got 20 points on the board before Christmas and Hull have got 27. I bet you could have got good odds against that happening at the start of the season.
"We've done well and surprised a lot of people and our aim will be to continue doing that over Christmas and into the new year."
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/22122008/1/pulis-desperate-strengthen-squad.html
