Ex-Oxford United loanee Jordan Thorniley suffers 'whiplash injury' during Blackpool's late win against Stoke City

The defender was forced off the pitch during the second-half at the bet 365 Stadium following a collision with Stoke forward Josh Maja.

What initially looked to be an innocuous coming together of players appeared a little more sinister on replay, as Maja forearm-smashed the back of Thorniley’s upper back.

It resulted in the 26-year-old crumbling to the floor in a heap, while referee Tony Harrington bizarrely allowed play to continue.

With Richard Keogh (calf) and James Husband (hamstring) already sidelined with injuries, the Seasiders could well do with positive news on Thorniley’s condition.

“He’s got a whiplash injury, sort-of,” head coach Neil Critchley explained after the game.

“He wasn’t expecting the collision from behind and it jarred his shoulder and neck a little bit.

“He’s fine, but he’s a little bit sore so over the next 48 hours hopefully that will settle down a bit.”

The Seasiders made it back-to-back wins on Saturday as Josh Bowler’s late strike secured a richly deserved 1-0 victory.

Critchley’s side dominated for the majority of proceedings but wasted two or three gilt-edged chances to take an early lead.

While Stoke were poor, they did threaten every now and then, Nick Powell skewing wide, Josh Maja hitting the post and Steven Fletcher being denied by Dan Grimshaw in the dying seconds.

“I thought the shot that hit the post went wide to be honest. Nick Powell had a good chance as well, didn’t he?,” Critchley said.

“But other than that, I felt comfortable. You can tell Stoke aren’t in a great moment now but they’ve got top quality players, they’ve got an unbelievable squad. They will come through this period because they’re too good not to.

“For us to come here and keep a clean sheet - but also the manner of the clean sheet because it’s not like it was lucky, it was fully deserved.

“I didn’t realise it was a first clean sheet in eight games because I always think we’re hard to score against.”