Stoke boss Mark Hughes says Joe Allen has no memory of collision that concussed him playing for Wales as midfielder misses Manchester City trip

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Mark Hughes has revealed Joe Allen cannot remember anything of the collision that ruled him out of Wales’s World Cup qualifier against Republic of Ireland.

Allen will miss Stoke’s visit to Manchester City and is also a doubt for next weekend’s game against Bournemouth after suffering severe concussion.

The midfielder was forced off at the Cardiff City Stadium on Monday night after being sandwiched between James McClean and David Meyler and receiving a heavy blow to the head.

Joe Allen has no memory of how he got concussed when playing for Wales against Ireland

Allen collided with Ireland duo David Meyler and James McClean in the first half of the match

‘Joe's not great,’ said Hughes on Friday morning. ‘We’ve given him a couple of days to stay at home. He came in yesterday, felt a lot better but I think the reality is he's unlikely to be available for City.

‘Concussion's a thing you can't take any risk with, we've got to follow the protocol. Hopefully he'll show some improvement and be ready to come back and train next week.

‘He had a bang to the head. He found it difficult to remember the incident itself, that tells you where he's at in terms of the severity of it. He doesn’t remember anything. We've got to be very careful.

‘We're being guided by the medical people here. At the moment he's not in position to return to training. You've got to go through each process and make sure you're 100 per cent okay to proceed to the next step and we have to just wait until Joe's ready.’

Hughes did not believe the Irish had targeted Allen, however. ‘I suppose you could argue it might be a realistic statement because he's a good player,’ Hughes said. ‘Certainly Joe for Wales and for us is very influential. But I haven't seen that.

‘At the time my initial thought was that it wasn’t deliberate. Joe doesn’t have any recollection so he wouldn’t have a view on it. But I don’t think so.

Allen is out of Stoke's trip to Manchester City in the Premier League this weekend

Hughes has given the 27-year-old Allen two days off just to stay at home and recover

‘You don’t deliberately go to hurt someone and target their head. The lad’s knee, or something hard and firm, has hit him to cause the injury.

‘There are certain incidents that in slow motion look a little bit premeditated. But actually when the incident happened I don’t think anybody thought it was deliberate. We don’t have any issue with it.’