Tony Pulis has said that Matthew Etherington's recovery could be the "missing link" for Stoke City.

The winger is expected to return from a back injury during the Potters' game against Norwich City tomorrow.

The manager told the team's website: "Even I was amazed when someone worked out this week that Matty and Marc [Wilson] have only played together for 149 minutes in the Premier League this season.

"The left-hand side has been our strongest side in recent seasons and it has created much of our threat in home matches in particular. It has been a massive miss for us that they have only linked up together for a short amount of time due to their injury problems, and that has undoubtedly been a factor in the run of results which we've had over the past few months.

"They are both top, top performers and left sided attacking players of Matty's quality are like gold-dust, so it hasn't helped us. Norwich have a very, very good defence which will be difficult to break down, so we know that we will have to be patient."

Stoke are just six points clear of the Premier League's relegation zone.