Stoke will be without midfielder Charlie Adam for the next five to six weeks after the midfielder was was forced off in Tuesday's Capital One Cup defeat with a calf tear.
Mark Hughes confirmed Adam's injury, but he had better news on Marko Arnautovic, who also took a few knocks against Liverpool.
"Charlie has popped his calf and he felt quite a bit of pain. It'll be a few weeks I think," Hughes said.
"Marko has got a couple of bangs in his back which he's been struggling with for a couple of weeks. Hopefully that will settle down and he'll be OK."
There was also positive news regarding skipper Ryan Shawcross, who had been ruled out for up to a month earlier this week by a back problem.
"He feels a lot better and the injury seems to be settling down," Hughes said of the defender. "Initially we said three to four weeks, but hopefully it will be sooner than that."
Meanwhile, Hughes says Stoke are "still hopeful" of being active before the transfer window closes on Monday, with them yet to have brought any new signings in so far this month.
"We're still hopeful -- but a few of the things we are involved in need to accelerate a little bit more quickly," Hughes said. "If they don't, then we will probably run out of time. But what we've already got isn't bad at the moment.
"There won't be any last-minute deals we haven't thought through."
Hughes also dismissed talk of the club preparing to enter talks with forward Bojan Krkic over a new deal.
"I'm not quite sure where that's come from," Hughes said. "Bojan has two-and-a-half years left on his contract, so it seems a little bit premature to be talking about that."