Stoke boss Alex Neil explained he had a duty of care to withdraw Tyrese Campbell after the striker was seemingly knocked out in the 3-1 win at Swansea.
Campbell went down under a heavy tackle from Ryan Manning after 55 minutes and looked to have hit his head on the ground.
As he lay prone on the ground, Stoke physio Nick Meace raced onto the pitch and after examining his stricken player waved for a stretcher.
By the time the stretcher had reached the player just outside the Swansea box, Campbell had sat up and was able to walk off the pitch – returning to the action for a few minutes before being replaced by Jordan Thompson.
Neil, who picked up a yellow card for his complaints around the initial tackle, said: “As play went on Ty went back on the pitch, but the doctor made me aware that he had been knocked out potentially.
“I’m not sure he is. I’ve spoken to Ty since and he said he was fine. But the minute I think anything was untoward I need to protect him and take him off, because sometime players need protecting from themselves.
“We believe he’s OK. I don’t think he hit his head, we just thought he did because of the way he went down. It looked worse than it was.
“The doctor was not comfortable, and the moment the doctor’s not comfortable I’ve got a duty of care to him to take him off.”
Stoke had slipped into relegation trouble after winning only three of their previous 12 games.
But after climbing two places to 17th and moving nine points clear of the bottom three, Neil said: “I think our set-up was really brave in terms of how we tried to do it.
“The fact we conceded the goal early was really disappointing. We’ve conceded far too many early goals, chased the game and haven’t really got into it, but this time I thought we carried a threat right through the game.”
Swansea had taken a second-minute lead through Morgan Whittaker.
But Josh Laurent’s brace and a stoppage-time clincher from substitute Lewis Baker condemned Swansea to both defeat and the joint-worst defensive record in the Championship – the Welsh side now having conceded 50 goals alongside bottom-placed Wigan.
Swansea boss Russell Martin said: “Of course it’s a concern, but we have to try and find a way to stop that.
“We have a lot of young players in the team that will be better for this experience.
“I can’t come out and defend that really, we’ve conceded far too many goals, too many individual mistakes.
“I understand that (boos at final whistle). You don’t want to hear it, but you understand it. Results-wise it’s been tough, but we’re sitting 12th with the youngest team and the smallest squad in the league.”
