Stoke City boss Mark Hughes admits skipper Ryan Shawcross will visit a specialist tomorrow over his back problem.

Shawcross sat out of the final friendly yesterday afternoon, a 3-0 defeat to Porto in Cologne.

Hughes said: "I won't speculate yet. We will wait and see what the specialist says.

"We've been managing the injury for a while now and it's been fine doing that but it's got a point when Ryan wasn't comfortable with it. We'll get it scanned again to make sure nothing has developed.

"If it has then obviously decisions have to be made.

"We are at that point now when we have to weigh up whether we can manage it through a long, hard Premier League season or do we address it now and get him back quickly."