Stoke City are waiting to find out the severity of an ankle injury sustained by captain Ryan Shawcross in Saturday’s pre-season friendly against Leicester.
Shawcross, 31, was hurt while making a sliding clearance in the first half and was treated for several minutes before being carried off on a stretcher.
Potters boss Nathan Jones told BBC Radio Stoke: “There’s nothing official yet so we won’t speculate.
“We think it’s something reasonably serious – how serious, we don’t know.”
Jones continued: “He’s club captain, done superbly well for me in pre-season and ironically he’s come back as fit as anyone has seen him. It’s sad but that’s the way things go.
“Hopefully it’s not as bad as we first think and he’ll be back sooner rather than later.”
Centre-back Shawcross, who won an England cap in 2012, has been with Stoke since the summer of 2007 and has played 414 times for the club.
A late goal from £40m summer signing Youri Tielemans was enough to give Premier League Leicester a 2-1 victory, after Stoke’s Nick Powell had equalised following Marc Albrighton’s opener.
