Stoke will be missing skipper Ryan Shawcross for Tuesday's Capital One Cup semi-final second leg at Liverpool, with the defender set to be sidelined for up to a month by the back injury he sustained at Leicester on Saturday.

Marko Arnautovic, who has been carrying a hamstring problem, was not part the squad at the weekend and fellow forward Bojan Krkic was an unused substitute, but both are expected to return to the starting line-up for a game the Potters head into trailing 1-0 from the first leg.

Geoff Cameron (ankle) remains sidelined but may be in contention for Saturday's FA Cup game at Crystal Palace.

Since Shawcross made his return in October from a back operation, Stoke have lost only five times in all competitions.

Hughes added: “It is a blow to us because since Ryan came back into the team, we’ve been on a good run.

“It was certainly detrimental to our performance on Saturday.”

The Welshman expects forward Arnautovic, who has been carrying a hamstring problem for a while and sat out Saturday’s match, to be available for selection.

Hughes said scans had shown there was “just a little bit of tightness” rather than any major damage to Arnautovic’s hamstring and that Stoke would make sure the Austria international, having trained on Monday, was “primed and ready to go” for Tuesday night.