Stoke City of England veteran midfielder, John Mikel Obi is bound to send more time out of The Potters’ spotlight, as the club’s coach, Michael O’Neill stressed that they will not rush the former upper Eagles’ captain back into action, megasportsarena.com reports.
That line of reason saw Mikel left out of Stoke’s matchday squad against Queens Park Rangers in the English Championship on Tuesday, as O’Neill kept to his ward of not putting undue pressure on the 33-year-old former Lyn Oslo of Norway, Chelsea and Middlesbrough of England as well as ex-Trabzonspor of Turkey star.
In Mikel’s absence, Stoke played out a goalless draw with Queens Park Rangers on Tuesday night, as The Potters put up a gritty performance in the away fixture that ended goalless and left The Rs without a win in six matches, despite Bright Osayi-Samuel playing al 90 minutes of the game.
Rangers have won just one of their past nine games – a run which has included five defeats and resulted in them sliding towards the Championship relegation zone, and they again struggled to create chances against injury-hit Stoke, who defended well and were mostly comfortable, much to the delight of their coach.
Mikel has not been involved in Stoke’s last four games, as he missed action against Wycombe Wanderers, Middlesbrough, Cardiff City and Derby County due to injury, which is in stark contrast with how he made 14 consecutive starts in the Championship prior to his injury.
The Potters’ coach, however, added that his marquee summer signing will undergo a late fitness test ahead of their next fixture back home at Bet365 Stadium, even as he admitted he is happy that they managed to keep three clean sheets from four games without Mikel in the squad.
O’Neill said: “He trained for part of the session, but the important thing is not bringing players back too early and risking re-injury. I suppose the big positive for is that no one added to our injury list from the game on Saturday.”
