Stoke City legend Lou Macari believes that the club should look to sort out Ryan Shawcross' injury problem as soon as possible.

Shawcross has been struggling with a back injury since the latter part of last season and the defender has not made a full recovery as of yet. In order to find a solution to the problem, Shawcross is now seeking specialist treatment.

Stoke great Macari has been left very worried by Shawcross' persistent problem and is hopeful that the defender returns to full fitness soon as he believes that the club will find it difficult to find an adequate replacement for their captain before the start of the season.

Macari wrote in the Stoke Sentinel: "No Stoke fan needs me to remind them how good and how important Ryan Shawcross is to their team. Stoke aren't one of those clubs with a squad so big that Mark Hughes can just whistle for an adequate replacement.

"True, there's still time to dip into the coffers and get another centre half before the end of the transfer window. But trying to find a like-for-like replacement is not only difficult, especially at this stage of the window, but I'd say practically impossible."