Bojan set to make long-awaited Stoke return

Stoke City will be boosted by the return to action of Bojan Krkic this weekend, as the forward makes his first outing six months after suffering a serious knee injury.

Bojan ruptured the cruciate ligament in his left knee during Stoke’s 4-1 win at Rochdale in the FA Cup fourth round and underwent surgery in February.

The former Barcelona forward was subsequently ruled out of the remainder of the 2014-15 campaign.

But Bojan will make his long-awaited return in Saturday’s friendly at Brentford, with defender Ryan Shawcross also set to feature after struggling throughout pre-season with a back problem.

“I would imagine that both players will get a significant amount of playing time tomorrow afternoon,” assistant manager Mark Bowen told the club’s official website. 

“I don’t know what the manager’s team is at the moment but it is extremely likely that they will get some valuable playing time. 

“It’s never nice going through a close season and reporting back and then not being in a position to play in the friendly matches, but we have had to be careful with them. 

“The last thing we wanted to do was to rush them back and compromise them, so as always we have taken the medical guys lead on this.”