Stoke City Football Club News

• Nickname:Potters
• Founded:1863
• Manager:Tony Pulis

• Ground:Britannia Stadium
• Capacity:28,218

Delap blow rocks Potters

18 Oct 2006 - 08:03:23

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Stoke City's on-loan midfielder Rory Delap faces surgery on Wednesday after suffering an horrific double fracture of his leg during Tuesday night's 2-1 home win against his parent side Sunderland.

Black Cats' boss Roy Keane had given Delap permission to play in the Britannia Stadium showdown, but he only lasted nine minutes before being stretchered off in agony following a collision with Robbie Elliott.

Stoke managed to pick up three points when Lee Hendrie and Vincent Pericard's second-half goals cancelled out Dwight Yorke's opener, but boss Tony Pulis' thoughts were with Delap.

He told The Sentinel: "Elliott is a seasoned pro, he knows Rory and I'm sure the last thing he would have wanted to do was break his leg.

"But it's devastating for Rory. His tibia and fibula have both been broken and I wouldn't even hazard a guess at how long he might be out.

"All of my players came across and saw it and it took the steam out of them. I felt some of them had it on their minds for the rest of the first half.

"But we had a word at half-time, there was a game to be won and they went out there and won it.

"There were a lot of encouraging signs and the way we moved the ball around at speed for the first 20 minutes of the second half was great.

"It's just a pity Rory won't be around for a while because having him and Lee Hendrie on the wings gave us a great balance."