Stoke City captain Ryan Shawcross has revealed he put his career on the line with back surgery this year.

Shawcross couldn't even bend such was the agony and had to pour out his heart to boss Mark Hughes over his major fears about not being able to carry on playing.

He said: "The surgeon was the first person to tell me that it was a career threatening injury and if the operation was to go wrong then I would never play football again.

"There was only a small chance of that happening but even so it was still worrying. It's my livelihood at the end of the day and you just hope and pray that everything is going to be OK.

"I had full trust in him and the medical staff at Stoke and thankfully everything went to plan. I am back up and running again now and am able to finally concentrate on just playing football, which was my main aim."