Stoke City boss Mark Hughes has revealed Robert Huth faces a lengthy spell on the sidelines with a knee injury.
Huth has been carrying the injury for several weeks and finally had to call time on his efforts to play through it when retiring in the second half of last week's win over Sunderland.
Hughes said: "Unfortunately, Robert has got a problem with his knee.
"We hoped we would be able to manage him through it, but it looks like he will have an operation and be out for a number of weeks."
