Stoke City’s assistant manager Dean Holden says his side ‘have to make’ some decisions going into the January transfer window following Harry Souttar’s injury.
Souttar has recently been ruled out for the remainder of the season after suffering a cruciate ligament injury whilst on international duty with Australia.
The centre-back has been a key player for the Potters so far this season and speaking on whether his side will look to replace Souttar in the upcoming January transfer window, Holden said:
“Moving forward we will obviously have to make decisions going into January in terms of recruitment and how we go about that.
“However, for the short term, we obviously have the players that we have in the squad and we are very pleased with them.”
Stoke City currently sit in 5th-place of the Championship table. They’ve enjoyed a strong start to the season under Michael O’Neill but Souttar’s absence for the remainder of the campaign is a major blow.
The 23-year-old was putting in some fine performances, so much so that there was mounting Premier League speculation surrounding him.
But his injury puts all of that to bed for now and for Stoke, they have a void to fill at the back.
As Holden points out, Stoke have other names such as Leo Ostigard, James Chester, Ben Wilmot and Danny Batth who can all operate in the middle of defence and so all is not lost for the Potters.
Whether or not they’ll look for a direct replacement for Souttar in January remains to be seen, but it certainly gives the club’s officials something to think about and as Holden says, some decisions will need to be made over the next six weeks.
