Mamady Sidibe will only be out until the new year after scans revealed the Stoke striker's knee injury is not as bad as first feared.

Sidibe had to be stretchered off five minutes into Stoke's goalless draw with Fulham on Saturday and it had been feared that the 28-year-old, who has scored four times this season, could be out for several months.

A second scan of his knee, however, has revealed the striker has not suffered ligament damage and has only hyper-extended his knee which will rule him out of at least the next three matches against Blackburn, Manchester United and West Ham.

"He'll be out over Christmas and most probably miss the FA Cup game at Hartlepool in the New Year," Stoke manager Tony Pulis told www.stokecityfc.co.uk.

"It seems that he has hyper-extended his knee and left it a little unstable as a result, so we've got to be careful with him.

"He will have a mix of rest and strengthening work to build up the knee again and most probably wear a brace for a short while to help stabilise it.

"We are relieved it wasn't any worse than this, to be honest, because you can sometimes be in the lap of the gods when it comes to knee injuries."

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