Stoke boss Paul Lambert hails Ryan Shawcross’ courage

Paul Lambert praised the “colossal” performance of Ryan Shawcross against West Ham after it was revealed the Stoke captain played the day after the sudden death of his father.

Lambert gave the defender the choice to pull out ahead of the game on Monday but Shawcross chose to play in the 1-1 draw at the London Stadium, and his boss could not have been more impressed.

The Scot said: “I found out the day before the game, and his performance on Monday night epitomised what this club is built on.

“I said to him after that his mum and dad would’ve been proud of him for what he did there. It’s an emotional thing – you’re never quite sure what to say to people when they lose a parent. I think his performance was colossal.

“He wanted to play in the game, we had one or two little chats the night before. I said, ‘Look, if you want to go home, you decide’. That would’ve been no problem.

“There were two ways of looking at it; one, the emotion gets to him, or two, play him and it takes his mind off it for a spell. It probably caught up with him a day later or so.

“For someone to go through that and play like he did was unbelievable. He showed what this club is, what it should be and what it should get back.”