Ashley Phillips returns to the Stoke City squad for a mid-week clash with Portsmouth but doubts remain over Million Manhoef.

Phillips, on loan from Spurs for the season, has had to serve a two-week concussion protocol after taking a whack to the face in a Carabao Cup tie against Fleetwood Town but he has been given the green light to join in training and is in contention to feature on Wednesday (7.45pm).

Manhoef, however, was withdrawn early in the second half at Middlesbrough on Saturday after receiving on-pitch treatment from the physio on his leg. He had been under the weather going into that match and will be given every chance to prove he can play tomorrow.

Narcis Pelach said: “Phillips is back but we have doubts on Million. He had a problem in the last game so we will see if he is ready for tomorrow or not. We will assess him in the morning.”

Bosun Lawal (back), Lynden Gooch (knee) and Ben Pearson (hamstring) are ruled out.

New head coach Pelach wants to see a lot more from his side from that Middlesbrough game.

He said: “The idea is to be more aggressive, offensively and defensively. I want to see the team be more like we were in the first 30 minutes against Hull City, when we were front foot, tried to win the ball back high up the pitch and also, when we had the ball, go forward with a real purpose of attacking and getting shots off. That’s what we have been working on. We want to be much. much more aggressive of course with our ideas and the new direction we are going with but trying to be much more aggressive.”