Hughes hopeful as Shaqiri set for scan on hamstring injury

Mark Hughes is hopeful that a hamstring injury sustained by club-record signing Xherdan Shaqiri in Stoke City’s first Premier League win of the season is not serious.

The only negative during an otherwise successful afternoon for Stoke against AFC Bournemouth on Saturday at the Britannia Stadium was the setback suffered by Shaqiri, who pulled up with an apparent hamstring problem midway through the second half.

“I haven’t had an update yet,” said Hughes after the 2-1 victory. 

“We’ll settle him down and probably get a scan on Monday and see what the damage is.

“Hopefully, given that he came off the pitch quite readily and didn’t hang around, hopefully he hasn’t done too much damage.”

A late header from substitute Mame Biram Diouf sealed the win for Stoke after Dan Gosling’s second-half strike had cancelled out a Jonathan Walters tap-in.

However, while emerging with their first three-point haul of the season, Hughes admits his side were not at their best.

Hughes said: “It was an important win. I would argue we probably played better in other games and got beaten so [it] was about getting the three points and making sure that we got that [losing streak] off our backs.

“We probably played with a little bit of apprehension in the second half and tried to protect the lead more than we should have done and I think that allowed them to have just a little bit of the play and allowed them back into the game. 

“But we showed good courage I thought after that because it could have been very easy for Bournemouth to gain momentum in the game after the equaliser but we didn’t allow that.

“That shows courage and determination to make sure that at least we got a draw but actually go the other end and try and get a winner which thankfully we were able to do.”