Source: Eurosport
Beattie tipped to face Blackburn
Stoke striker James Beattie is being backed to make next weekend's clash with Blackburn - despite a dozen stitches in a nasty head wound.
Beattie was left with blood streaming from a gash above his eye after being caught by a flailing arm in the first half of Saturday's 1-1 draw with Newcastle.
He was patched up and played on, but later subbed in the second half when the discomfort was clearly affecting his game.
"The blood was dripping into his eye and it was obviously becoming difficult for him," City boss Tony Pulis told the Stoke Sentinel.
"I thought he did well for 10 or 15 minutes after the incident, but then I thought he started to fade a bit and it was right to bring him off. He's had 12 stitches in the wound, so it's quite a big one, but at the moment I would say he should be OK for Blackburn on Saturday.
"It's definitely one he'll want to play in because they're his first club."B
eattie was furious with Newcastle defender Sebastien Bassong after his arm struck him on the forehead, but Pulis would only say: "I honestly haven't seen it properly again since."
Beattie's probable availability next Saturday comes as a timely tonic for Stoke after the possibility of a fourth win in five was snatched away when Newcastle's late equaliser cancelled out Abdoulaye Faye's header against his old club.
That leaves Stoke six points clear of the drop zone with only six games remaining in their debut Premier League campaign.
"Don't anybody kid themselves," insisted Pulis, "I thought we were the better team over 90 minutes and we are disappointed not to win.
"I think we did enough to win the game, but everybody will talk about the last 15 minutes when they came back into it. But in the first 75 I thought we were smashing and I was just disappointed we didn't finish it off."
