City's League Cup tie at York City tonight with a toe injury.

Lightbourne limped off the field in the 37th minute of his side's impressive 2-1 win at Bristol City last Saturday after taking a kick on the foot which caused him so much pain he thought he might have broken a toe.

But now it is clear he suffered only bad bruising in the incident and he hopes to be fit for Stoke's clash against Notts County on Saturday.

"I got injured in between two toes, my baby toe and the one next to it,'' said Lightbourne yesterday.

"At first I thought I had broken one of my toes, but luckily that is not the case, although there is quite a bit of bruising.'' Lightbourne took a break from training yesterday and underwent physiotherapy.

"I will not be involved against York, but I shouldn't be out for too long,'' said Lightbourne. "I hope to be back training by Thursday and I'm aiming to be fit to play on Saturday and the physio is thinking the same way.'' Along with Stoke, Bristol City are one of the sides fancied to be in the thick of the Division Two promotion race this season, but Lightbourne said the Potters had been comprehensive winners at Ashton Gate.

"We fully deserved to win the game,'' said the 31-year-old. "We had a lot of pressure from the start of the game but the final ball was letting us down.

"Then we scored an own goal, but we played better after we changed our system and did well to pull the two goals back.'' Stoke's visit to York comes in the League Cup first round, first leg, and then they face two more of the division's stronger teams in Notts County on Saturday and Reading a week today.

"The games are starting to come thick and fast already and we just need to keep picking up points,'' said Lightbourne.