Stoke City boss Mark Hughes admits he was disappointed to lose Marco van Ginkel last season.

The Chelsea midfielder, currently on-loan at PSV Eindhoven, spent six months at Stoke before leaving last January.

Hughes recalled: “Marco van Ginkel came and we had that conversation because he didn't feel he was getting the games that he wanted.

“He got a few, mind, at the time, so I wasn't quite sure why he felt that. But he wanted to play week-in, week-out and he wasn't, so we had conversations and in the end we decided it was best to allow him to go.

“That was only because we felt we had sufficient cover to allow that to happen, so there's no way we would have a conversation like that in relation to Kurt (Zouma) and allow him to go because clearly we would be left exposed... so it's not going to happen."