Stoke City have been dealt a major blow after it has been revealed that the front of Robert Huth will miss the rest of the season after undergoing a knee operation. This is the second time he has had to go under the knife after being troubled by this knee injury for the last three months. Huth has been a crucial player for Stoke over the last few years. He has formed an impeccable partnership with Ryan Shawcross at the back. However, the club’s hopes of finishing the season strongly has taken a major blow with this revelation by manager Mark Hughes.

It was only a few days ago that chairman Peter Coates said that Huth was in danger of missing the rest of the campaign. Stoke will now be concentrating on finishing in the top half of the table without the presence of Huth. The club are 11th in the table and the threat of relegation has not completely gone beyond them. A couple of points from the next few matches could certainly end in a relegation fears since the club has 34 points with only nine matches remaining.

Huth has not played for the club since November. He has been one of the best players since joining for £ 5 million from Middlesbrough a few years ago.

“Unfortunately, Robert had an operation last night and obviously he’s going to miss the end of the season. We’ve tried to get him back and he’s been close on a number of occasions, but the knee has been reacting adversely. Every time we tried to push him to the next level there was a reaction. We took him to the surgeon and he recommended Robert had another operation just to get a real understanding of what is going on in the knee,” said Hughes.