Stoke City’s Stephen Ireland was unable to play against his former club Aston Villa due to a clause in his contract which prohibits the midfielder from playing against the club which he used to play for and Mark Hughes expressed his disappointment for not being able to use Ireland in the match.
Mark Hughes Sky Sports News: “Aston Villa stipulated that they weren’t going to allow the loan deal to be changed unless it was in the contract that Stephen couldn’t play against them’’.