Good afternoon and welcome to Eurosport's live coverage of Stoke vs QPR from The Britannia. Kick of is coming up at 3pm and we'll bring you some team news shortly.

Ryan Shawcross just scratching his nuts there on his way out

In the absence of Bojan Krkic, who is out for the season with a knee injury, Steve Sidwell comes into the starting line-up for Stoke, as does Stephen Ireland. Mame Biram Diouf is back from Africa Cup of Nations duty with Senegal but only makes the bench today. For QPR, Richard Dunne recovers from a groin strain to come back into the heart of defence, while Yun Suk-young is back on the bench having been out since late December with an ankle problem.

TEAMS - STOKE: Begovic; Bardsley, Shawcross (c), Wollscheid, Wilson; Nzonzi, Whelan; Arnautovic, Ireland, Moses; Walters... Subs: Butland, Muniesa, Adam, Diouf, Cameron, Sidwell, Crouch. /// QPR: Green, Isla, Dunne, Onuoha, Hill, Vargas, Henry, Barton, Fer, Kranjcar, Austin... Subs: Caulker, Phillips, McCarthy, Yun, Hoilett, Zamora, Zárate.