Jack Butland is set for a further ten weeks out following ankle surgery, according to Stoke boss Mark Hughes.
The England international went under the knife on Monday, with Potters chairman Peter Coates suggesting the goalkeeper would be out until mid-November.
And Hughes said on Friday: "I saw Jack yesterday, for the first time since the operation.
"All reports are it went really well. It was a little bit of scar tissue that was restricting the movement of the tendon in the ankle. That has all been cleared out.”
Butland suffered a fractured ankle in England’s 3-2 win over Germany back in March and missed Euro 2016 as a result.