TONY PULIS has dropped a strong hint that he could make wholesale changes to his starting line-up for tomorrow's Barclays Premier League clash against Aston Villa.

The City boss has selection worries ahead of the game with Ryan Shawcross, James Beattie and Salif Diao certain to miss out. However, he has revealed promising news on the fitness of both Ricardo Fuller and Glenn Whelan; suggesting both have an outside chance of featuring.

"Ricardo and Glenn are our main worries, but they both have an outside chance of playing tomorrow," he told stokecityfc.com. "Ideally I would love to change things around a little bit because the lads have had an extremely busy six weeks.

"I would say since the start of the year the lads have had to work harder than they have for the last two or three years. It has been that intense. But it is good for us because we get to see what it is like to be a successful club.

"But it does take its toll and I thought some of them looked tired against Burnley so it would be good to freshen things up a little bit. If they are both close then I will seriously look into playing them because we do need to change it around.

"Danny Higginbotham is another one who has come through the last few days unscathed so he comes into consideration for the game, whilst Matty [Etherington] hasn't complained of any after affects, so hopefully they will be ok."

Pulis also revealed James Beattie has undergone a minor knee operation which could keep him out of the remainder of the season.

"He adds: "James has just had an operation on his knee. His meniscus needed clearing out so we thought it was best to have that done now. It's disappointing because he has had a few injuries this year which have hampered him, but hopefully if his rehabilitation goes well he can come back for the last three or four games."