Fingers crossed for Matty

MATTHEW Etherington looks certain to sit out Stoke City's Europa League clash against FC Thun, in Switzerland, on Thursday.

But the 30-year-old winger has not yet been ruled out of Sunday's Premier League trip to Norwich as Stoke continued a thorough assessment of his arm and shoulder injury.

Boss Tony Pulis was keeping his fingers crossed today that the damage was not too serious after Etherington suffered a nasty fall during Sunday's goalless draw with Chelsea at the Britannia Stadium.

"You don't want to lose any of your best players," stated Pulis, "and he has been one of our best by a country mile.

"Matthew is that type of player because he's so quick. Defenders get there as quickly as they can to try to stop him, but sometimes he's quicker than they are and there can be a bad impact at that kind of speed."

Rory Delap is another unlikely traveller when Stoke fly out tomorrow to play FC Thun in the first leg of the Europa League play-off round after the veteran midfielder limped off on Sunday with a recurrence of recent hamstring trouble.

Pulis will also have a decision to make on whether to risk the likes of defender Jonathan Woodgate because of a three-game week and due to the fact FC Thun play on a plastic pitch.

"They play on Astroturf, which is a massive disappointment for us," he said. "I find it very surprising we have to go there to play on that because it's a big disadvantage.

"We've got to go to Switzerland and give a performance like we did in Split in the last round.

"Swiss football is similar to German football, so they will be big and organised."

Meanwhile, Pulis has declined to enter into a war of words with Andre Villas-Boas after the new Chelsea boss was critical of Stoke's physicality at set-pieces during Sunday's 0-0 draw.

Villas-Boas complained: "They pushed the boundaries of pushing and grabbing, for sure – maybe the referees need some extra help.

"Maybe other assistants, maybe the fourth referee, maybe they need more focus on this situation."

Pulis would only say: "When they brought on Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka they out-matched us on the score.

"At that point Ashley Cole and Jose Bosingwa were the only Chelsea players under six foot on the pitch."

Pulis also added there had been no contact from Championship side Nottingham Forest concerning their reported interest in Danny Collins.

Collins, a £2.5m signing from Sunderland two years ago, has lost out to Marc Wilson at left-back in the first three games of the season.