Rarely-seen Stoke City player could hand Mark Robins a secret survival weapon | OneFootball

Ben Pearson could be key for the Potters as he nears full fitness after a long injury lay-off

Stoke City manager Mark Robins needs all the help he can get over the next few months as he looks to guide his side away from the Championship relegation zone, and experienced midfielder Ben Pearson could be a huge addition to his ranks as he comes back into the squad following a lengthy injury lay-off over the last 10 months.

The Potters' turbulent campaign shows no signs of getting much better anytime soon right now, with Robins, who was appointed as the club's third boss of the season last month, needing to be fully focused on keeping his side in the Championship from now until May.

He has been dealt a tough hand in terms of the players at his disposal, with a wholly unbalanced squad that is lacking creativity, maturity and confidence to play with from now until May, as well as numerous players that are either injured or just returning from being sidelined.

30-year-old midfield enforcer Pearson is in the latter bracket of those options, as his appearance off the bench against Cardiff City last weekend marked his first outing for the club since last March, when he suffered a serious hamstring injury against Norwich City that ruled him out of the end of the campaign and needed surgery in the summer.

Pearson is a rare commodity in Stoke's squad, in that he is an experienced player at the level and has previously been a standout in the Championship. He is a good leader and a gritty, all-action defensive midfield player, and his timely return could prove absolutely vital to Stoke and boss Robins over the next few months.

Ben Pearson has been inconsistent for Stoke but has previously impressed in the Championship

Pearson came through the ranks at Manchester United, but he made his real breakthrough in senior football at Preston North End after a permanent move to Deepdale in 2016. He featured 165 times for the Lilywhites in five years up to his exit in 2021, and was one of their key players as they came close to the play-offs on two separate occasions under Alex Neil.

His January 2021 move to AFC Bournemouth did not really work out, however, as he struggled to make an impact on the south coast, but did play a lesser part in their promotion to the Premier League in 2021/22. Pearson featured even less in the top-flight though, and so made an initial loan move to the Potters, who by then had Neil at the helm, midway through the 2022/23 campaign.

The midfielder was one of Stoke's key players in his first few months at the club, so he made a permanent move to the bet365 Stadium that same summer, but the last 18 months has not gone to plan for him despite that impressive start.

He was a consistent starter under Neil last season before he was sacked in December, but then appeared in just nine of the next 26 under new boss Steven Schumacher, and was sent off for a second yellow card after he had come on from the bench away at Leeds United in March, in a reckless move that summed up his time under the former Plymouth boss.

The 29-year-old limped out of a 3-0 home loss to Norwich with a hamstring injury in his next appearance, and did not feature in the final eight games of the season before it was announced that he was set to undergo surgery in the off-season and miss the start of this campaign.

He suffered a setback to his recovery in September, by which time Schumacher had been replaced by rookie head-coach Narcis Pelach, and then went on to feature for the Potters' under-21 side last month in his first appearance in any capacity for 10 months, with Robins now at the helm.

Mark Robins has backed Pearson to be fit and firing for the latter stages of this campaign

Stoke's midfield has been stretched to its limits over the last month or so, with Lewis Baker recalled from his loan spell at Blackburn Rovers to immediately partner the likes of Wouter Burger, Tatsuki Seko or Andrew Moran in the middle of the park.

Summer signing Bosun Lawal has been out injured for the majority of this campaign, similar to Pearson, while Jordan Thompson has faced months out with a groin problem, and Sol Sidibe is sidelined for the rest of this season with an injury to his lower back.

It is, then, a great time for Pearson to be back fit and ready to play now with three months of the campaign left as Stoke aim to avoid relegation to League One, and boss Robins spoke of his admiration of the 30-year-old last month after he came through his first 45 minutes for the youth team.

"I think he’s a really good player...the big thing for us and for him is to make sure he’s on the pitch for a long period of time," he told StokeonTrentLive.

"Injuries are part and parcel of the game but you’re hoping that people can be available more often than not. I think he’s been 10 months out and he’s been really unfortunate with it because he had a recurrence of an injury, I believe.

"He feels different now. You know yourself when you’re feeling right. He feels right and hopefully now we can get him back sooner rather than later. That’ll be down, to a degree, down to Ben and how he is mentally and physically.

"Pearo is a really good player at the level, really experienced. I used to watch him as a kid when I would go to do some work for MUTV and I watched him come through.

"He was always someone who impressed me and then he was a stalwart for Preston, a really good player. We’ve missed him at Stoke."

Pearson has since made his first appearances for the Potters' first-team since last March, as he came off the bench in both the FA Cup against Cardiff and in league action against Bristol City on Wednesday night.

Robins insisted that his 45 minutes against the Bluebirds would have done him the "world of good," and it does look as if he is building up to being included in his starting eleven sooner rather than later.

If he can return to his previous form with Preston, and how he played in the early parts of his time in the Potteries, then Pearson will be such a huge asset to Stoke's survival chances.

His no-nonsense style could prove decisive, and he may provide the desired steel in midfield to allow Robins' attacking unit more freedom to improve their poor record in front of goal from now until May.