News from Clayton Wood as Stoke City prepare for Championship mid-week game at Leeds United

Enda Stevens and Luke McNally are due to return to training later this week in a defensive double boost for Stoke City heading into the final few games of the season.

Stoke will be without Jordan Thompson at Leeds United on Tuesday as he serves the second part of a two-game ban, as well as Stevens (hamstring) and McNally (thigh), plus long-term lay-off Junior Tchamadeu, who is likely to be out until mid-April.

But Thompson will be back available for Saturday’s trip to Preston North End, while Stevens and McNally will hope they can prove their fitness soon to get back into contention for Steven Schumacher. Stevens, with successive problems since mid-December, is yet to feature under the new head coach.

Striker Ryan Mmaee is also hoping to recover from a knee injury to start full training again next week.

Schumacher said: “Enda Stevens is training on Thursday, Luke McNally is training on Thursday or Friday, probably Thursday, Ryan Mmaee is due to train next week.

The question remains if Mmaee, who had been demoted to the under-21s for disciplinary reasons, will train back with the first team.

“Potentially,” said Schumacher. “We had a bit of a conversation. He came and explained and I explained the situation. He apologised for how he was behaving and we sort of cleared the air. It’s over to him now. He’s got to go and prove it with his training performances and the way he is that he wants to be part of it, which he tells me that he does. He’s a good player and we need good players in the squad.”