Stoke City signed off from their pre-season friendly campaign with a well earned 1-0 win over Premier League Burnley on Saturday

Mark Robins expects to have one or two more players available for Stoke City’s Championship curtain raiser against Derby County at the bet365 Stadium next Saturday (3pm) after four first-teamers missed their final summer friendly, against Burnley.

Stoke edged proceedings 1-0 thanks to an early Ben Wilmot goal, and came through the final hurdle without any more issues – indeed, there were welcome minutes for striker Sam Gallagher as he returned from injury.

Summer-signed centre halves Maksym Talovierov and Ashley Phillips were both missing, though, as were Ben Gibson and Lewis Baker. Phillips and Baker were struck down by illness and kept away from the squad, while Talovierov is still overcoming a hamstring issue sustained earlier in pre-season.

Read: Stoke City player ratings in excellent Burnley win

Gibson and free agent Steven Nzonzi – who has been training with the club and was in attendance on Saturday – trained in the morning and will join in again on Monday.

“It’s always the intention,” Robins told Stoke-on-TrentLive. “Maksy is fine, he’s alright, but there’s just something that’s not quite right. He’s alright. Gibbo is fine, he trained today. Steven Nzonzi too, he’s doing okay and trying to get fit and ready to go – he’ll do that over the next week or two.

“It’s as you were with Steven. He’s just working towards his fitness, and then we can make a proper decision. I’m hopeful and he’s hopeful because he’s working hard. It’s going to be interesting because it’s difficult when you have to work hard. He’s getting a day off tomorrow because he’s worked really hard on Saturday morning.