Stoke City captain Ryan Shawcross stepped up his recovery from a back injury by featuring for the Potters' Under-21 outfit yesterday.

Shawcross is yet to play this season for the Premier League side after having an operation in the summer to fix a long-standing back issue.

The 28-year-old made his first appearance since surgery by playing the first 45 minutes of the development team's 1-1 draw with Plymouth Argyle.

"It was always planned to play 45 minutes," Shawcross told The Sentinel. "I've got a few niggles just from coming back so I need to let them settle down and hopefully I can kick on again next week.

"I felt good. It's just a case of building on it now. Hopefully next week I can get a 70-minute game in and then move on to a full game in the coming weeks.

"It's up to the manager (Mark Hughes) to see when I can get back involved. I haven't trained with the first team yet so I'll look forward to doing that."

Shawcross said that his life had been made easier of late because of the decision to have the operation.

"It's a relief after quite a while of being impinged that I can move freely," he added. "My day-to-day life has been a lot better and it's been quite nice. I can pick up my kids again.

"It had got to the stage where it was getting a bit silly. The right decision was made. Unfortunately I've missed a bit of football but it had to be done."

Shawcross has been a regular at centre-back for Stoke since joining them from Manchester United eight years ago, making 245 Premier League appearances for the Potters.