Stoke City Football Club News

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

• Ground:Britannia Stadium
• Capacity:28,218

Thigh problem hinders Beattie

29 Apr 2009 - 11:55:21

Click To Enlarge

Stoke City striker James Beattie says he only has a 50-50 chance of being fit for the weekend meeting with West Ham United at the Britannia Stadium.

The 31-year-old has scored six times in 12 games since joining City from Sheffield United in January, but has not featured since the 1-0 win over Blackburn Rovers and is still struggling with a thigh problem.

He told The Sentinel: "The injury is progressing, but I don't really know what the crack will be come the weekend. We'll have to wait and see, but hopefully I'm in with a shout.

"I did some running before the Fulham game on Saturday and again this week with no reaction, but it's the first time I've had this injury in my career, so it's something new to me.

"It's hard for me watching games of football when you should maybe be out there, but I thought I would go down and support the lads at Fulham because we need the points.

"It was great to see our supporters down there and a few of my friends who play for Fulham were complimenting our fans on the noise they made.

"Everybody has put in a tremendous effort to be where we are today and we will be pushing to get as many points as we can.

"We've got 39 points and we are quite proud of that, but we still want more."