![\"Lamine](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/0_SCFC-Lamine-Cisse-SIGNS-14AUG25-4609.jpg\")
Lamine Cisse joined Stoke from Bastia in August.(Image: Phil Greig)<\/p>\nStoke City return to Championship action this weekend at home against Birmingham CityLamine Cisse joined Stoke from Bastia in August.(Image: Phil Greig)<\/p>\n
Mark Robins is hoping to have a couple of potential debutants in contention when Stoke City return to Championship action this weekend.<\/p>\n
Stoke host Birmingham City at the bet365 Stadium on Saturday (3pm) on the back of a fortnight’s international break which has seen 14 members of the squad go off to play for their countries – and summer signing Lamine Cisse have an extra two weeks to get towards match fitness.<\/p>\n
Cisse, aged 22, was nursing a minor shoulder injury when he completed a transfer from Bastia to Stoke in August<\/a> and is expected to be with the main group for the first time this week.<\/p>\n Midfielder Tomas Rigo, aged 23, will also be available for the first time, having watched Stoke’s last game from the stands<\/a> shortly after completing his transfer from Banik Ostrava.<\/p>\n Rigo has been away with Slovakia and scored a 90th minute winner as they beat Luxembourg in a World Cup qualifier<\/a> on Sunday, having helped secure a 2-0 win over Germany on Thursday.<\/p>\n Steven Nzonzi and Sam Gallagher shouldn’t be too far away from being involved either.<\/p>\n Robins has named the same starting XI in each of the last three games – wins at Sheffield Wednesday and Southampton and a defeat to West Brom – and Makysm Talovierov made the league match day squad for the first time in the latter as he returns from a hamstring injury. He had made his debut in the Carabao Cup in mid-week.<\/p>\n Ashley Phillips, Jamie Donley and Robert Bozenik are also still bidding for their first Championship starts after joining Stoke during the summer window.<\/p>\n How should Stoke line up vs Birmingham? Click HERE to join the debate<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Sky Sports discounted Premier League and EFL package<\/p>\n This article contains affiliate links, we will receive a commission on any sales we generate from it. Learn more<\/a> \u00a349<\/p>\n \u00a335<\/p>\n Sky<\/p>\n Get Sky Sports here<\/a><\/p>\n Sky has slashed the price of its Essential TV and Sky Sports<\/a> bundle for the 2025\/26 season, saving members \u00a3336 and offering more than 1,400 live matches across the Premier League, EFL and more.<\/p>\n Sky will show at least 215 live Premier League games this season, an increase of up to 100 more.<\/p>\n While you’re here, we have launched a new WhatsApp group to deliver the latest Stoke news directly to your phone. Click on this link,<\/a> select ‘Join Chat’ and you’re in. If for some reason you decide you no longer want to be in our community, you can leave at any time by clicking on the name at the top of your screen and clicking ‘Exit Group’, simple as that.<\/strong><\/p>\n Every day, the StokeonTrentLive football desk strive to deliver news, features and transfer-related stories as a part of our overall package of Stoke City content.<\/p>\n Our dedicated reporter Pete Smith – who you can follow on X by clicking here <\/a>– follows Stoke home and away and offers you comprehensive coverage from matchdays, press conferences and everything that happens in between.<\/p>\n With so much going on, we send out a daily free Stoke City newsletter which you can sign up for – and means you’ll have a round-up of the key stories land in your email inbox. 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You can get it from Apple here <\/a>and for Android here <\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stoke City return to Championship action this weekend at home against Birmingham CityLamine Cisse joined Stoke from Bastia…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":408339,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,748,393,4884,140604,97562,74089,140605,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-408338","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-lamine-cisse","13":"tag-mark-robins","14":"tag-stoke-city-fc","15":"tag-tomas-rigo","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115169868254084846","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=408338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Content](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1755484668_801_0_Sky-Factbox.jpg\")
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