News from the bet365 Stadium as Stoke City head into final six games of the Championship season

Junior Tchamadeu is stepping up his training programme this week in hope he can play a part in Stoke City’s final chapter of the season.

The 20-year-old full-back, a summer signing from Colchester United, has been out since late February with a badly-strained ankle and was watching on from the stands yesterday as Stoke drew 1-1 at home with Huddersfield Town. The plan is for him to spend the rest of this week working with the fitness coaches, hoping to join back in training next week to possibly come into contention for the last four matches of the season.

Lynden Gooch and Ben Pearson could be heading back towards availability at the end of April or start of May but, with both nursing nasty hamstring strains, it will be touch and go whether either will be involved again before the end of term on May 4.

Steven Schumacher otherwise a large squad to choose from, easing Enda Stevens back into the swing of things as the veteran left-back returns from the best part of four months in the treatment room. Stevens came through 90 minutes at Hull on Friday but was only used from the bench against Huddersfield on Monday.

Stoke, who are now preparing for a home match against West Bromwich Albion on Saturday, are mindful about players who are observing Ramadan at the moment, including forwards Mehdi Leris, Ryan Mmaee and Sead Haksabanovic – particularly as those three come back into the picture after limited action in recent weeks.

Schumacher said Leris, who started against Hull and Huddersfield, had run his race by the time he was substituted in the second half of the second game, saying: “He’s just said down there that he was really tired. I said it was going to be hard anyway because he hadn’t played for a while and then played Friday and Monday but that was the decision we went with and I thought he did ok. He tried his best and gave us everything as you’d expect. He’s a great lad. He gives us everything we had and it was probably the right call to take him off when we did too.”

The Huddersfield match was Stoke’s 40th in the league this season but only one player has made more than 30 starts; Michael Rose (32). Ki-Jana Hoever and Luke McNally have both made 30.

Stoke have used 35 players in all, although 17 have featured in fewer than 1,000 minutes. The lesser-spotted Wesley and Ciaran Clark have not been able to make the match day squads of late.

Stoke City squad (league starts)

GOALKEEPERS: Jack Bonham (14), Mark Travers* (13), Daniel Iversen (12), Tommy Simkin (1)

DEFENCE: Michael Rose (32), Luke McNally (30), Ki-Jana Hoever (30), Lynden Gooch (19), Ben Wilmot (19), Enda Stevens (13), Junior Tchamadeu (9), Ciaran Clark (3), Josh Tymon (1)

MIDFIELD: Wouter Burger (29), Josh Laurent (24), Ben Pearson (22), Daniel Johnson (19), Jordan Thompson (18), Lewis Baker (11), Luke Cundle (8), Sol Sidibe (0)

ATTACK: Bae Junho (20), Andre Vidigal (17), Mehdi Leris (17), Ryan Mmaee (16), Tyrese Campbell (10), Sead Haksabanovic (9), Niall Ennis (6), Wesley (5), Million Manhoef (4), Dwight Gayle* (4), Nathan Lowe (3), Jacob Brown (1), Chiquinho* (1), Nikola Jojic (0)

*No longer at the club.