Etherington 50-50 for Cup final say Stoke
Published 23:00 28/04/11 By Jeremy Butler
Tony Pulis last night revealed Matty Etherington is touch and go for the FA Cup final after confirming he tore his hamstring in the win over Wolves.
The winger has experience of sweating on a final spot though, having gone through a similar scenario when West Ham reached the showpiece in 2006.
He said: “I nearly didn’t make that final. I was in an oxygen tank for most of the week and only just made it.”
Etherington recovered only to see the Hammers beaten by a Steven Gerrard-inspired Liverpool.
And Stoke boss Pulis is determined to give his star winger as much time as possible to prove his fitness.
He said: “We will give Matty every chance of getting fit for the final, even if that means him having a fitness test at Wembley.
“But the next seven days are crucial, so we will have a better view then. We will certainly pull out all the stops in an attempt to get him right.
“He is such an important player to us and it goes without saying that it would be a massive blow if he wasn’t fit, especially after losing Ricardo Fuller and Danny Higginbotham as well over the past few weeks.”
Pulis added: “We’ve been very unfortunate losing Higginbotham, Fuller and then Matty picking that injury up.
“It’s going to be a difficult enough game for us anyway, but to lose three very influential players – if Matty doesn’t make it – is going to make it doubly difficult.”
Higginbotham will miss the start of next season after suffering cruciate ligament damage earlier this month while Fuller underwent an operation yesterday on a ruptured Achilles.
