Stoke City: City won't be slowed by Griff's hand break

by Martin Spinks

STOKE skipper Andy Griffin has vowed to play on with his fractured left hand against Hull tomorrow – despite the risk of serious injury if he suffers another collision.

He intends to play with a plaster cast to protect the metacarpal he broke against West Bromwich Albion last weekend.

"I've got to keep a soft plaster cast on for six weeks," he revealed. "If the ref lets me play with it then great, but if not then I'll take it off and wrap the hand up in a bandage and take the chance.

"If I get a kick on it or fall on it, I'll not only be in a lot of pain, but any further damage might leave me needing an operation to have the bone pinned and then I'd be out for a couple of weeks."

He suffered the fracture unknowingly when tangling with an Albion player on the halfway line in the second half of last Saturday's 1-0 win.

"I was just holding the player off behind me," he recalled. "At the time I thought I had just bent my finger back, but as the game wore on the pain was getting worse and worse. Then I went to take a throw and was in a lot of pain. I never went down in the challenge, so I don't know how I've ended up with a fractured hand.

"I've not had this particular injury before, but I did once break the knuckle and wrist of my right hand and played on afterwards with a plaster cast. Mind you, it was only Sunday football when I was younger."

Griffin believes the win against West Brom, one week after being thumped 5-0 at Manchester United, was a contrast to the kind of response he suffered during Derby's miserable relegation campaign last season – and hopefully stands Stoke in good stead ahead of Hull's visit.

"You would say there's a difference because we obviously won," he acknowledged, "but also because we showed we've got the ability to react to a heavy defeat by bouncing back and not feeling sorry for ourselves.

"We have that character and resilience about us. There's also a good togetherness among the players and I think we showed that also last Saturday.

"There's a belief which has been there at home ever since winning that first league game at the Britannia against Aston Villa.

"But at Derby, we kept getting knocked down and found it difficult to get up again.

"Luckily, here at Stoke we've only had one heavy defeat so far and you have to say Manchester United have trounced far better teams than Stoke City, so there was certainly no disgrace there.

"I said earlier in the season those kinds of results might happen, but I don't think it will be a regular occurrence with this set of players."

City's home form will be pitted against one of the Premier League's best away records this weekend as Stoke's five wins at the Britannia compares with Hull's four victories on the road.