Sidibe celebrates his last Premier League goal against Blackburn in February

By Phil Cartwright BBC Radio Stoke

It was the second weekend of the Premier League season when Mama Sidibe snapped his Achilles tendon in the final moments of Stoke City's 2-1 home defeat against Tottenham at the Britannia Stadium.

The Mali international striker was almost immediately ruled out of action for the remainder of the campaign and facing another long road to recovery.

That setback had come less than a year after spending eight months on the sidelines with a cruciate knee ligament injury.

But Sidibe surprised everyone by not only returning to training ahead of schedule, but also returning to the substitutes' bench for the FA Cup third round replay victory at Cardiff on Tuesday.

He did not make it onto the pitch, but just to be back in the squad was good enough for him.

"I'm happy to be back with the squad," Sidibe told BBC Radio Stoke. "I've been working hard since getting injured and to get back into the squad is a great reward.

"It was a good choice from the manager for me to be part of the squad but not to get involved because I need games with the reserves and I need to train more.

"I've been out for five months so hopefully I will be involved in the next reserve game.

"When you get injured it's never easy to come back. You try not to, but you think about it.

"That's why I need to play a proper game, to see how I will react, so I'm waiting for that."

Sidibe is a very likeable character and has found his way into the hearts of many Stoke fans during his six-year spell at the Britannia Stadium.

He has only scored 26 goals in 186 appearances for the Potters, a strike rate of around one in seven, which is not a fantastic record for a forward player.

Sidibe tussles with Manchester City and England defender Joleon Lescott

But to find the amount of goals Sidibe has helped provide for other people, you could probably double, maybe even treble that number.

It says a lot for Sidibe that, even after spending millions of pounds on the likes of Dave Kitson and Tuncay during the early part of Stoke's Premier League adventure, Tony Pulis kept faith with a player that did so much to get the club into the top flight in the first place.

In Sidibe's absence, Stoke have risen to eighth in the table and the striker is confident he can still play a part in continuing the Potters' progress.

"The manager (Tony Pulis) says he is going to put me in his 25-man squad and I'm really pleased with that because I've worked very hard to be a part of the squad again," he added.

"I know it's going to be really hard because we have a lot of players.

"Everybody wants to be part of the success that we're having at the moment. Every year we're doing better and better and some great players have come to the club again.

"I'm a professional footballer and I want to be part of it."

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