Stoke will be without Mamady Sidibe for tomorrow's Carling Cup fourth-round home tie with Rotherham following an ankle injury suffered at Wigan on Saturday.

Liam Lawrence is out after having an ankle operation, while Tom Soares and Michael Tonge are both cup tied.

Manager Tony Pulis will rest several of his senior men ahead of Saturday's trip to Manchester United, and bring in the likes of goalkeeper Steve Simonsen, Leon Cort, Glenn Whelan, Dave Kitson, Richard Cresswell and Danny Pugh.

Stoke first-team coach Mark O'Connor believes a cloud has been left hanging over the club following Arsene Wenger's scathing comments.

Wenger accused Stoke players of trying to deliberately injure members of his team during the Gunners' 2-1 defeat at the Britannia Stadium earlier this month and Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson was one of several managers who had supportive words for Stoke following Wenger's remarks.

"I wasn't surprised by what some managers have said in our support after what Arsene Wenger said, because they were only telling the truth," O'Connor said.

"I would have been disappointed if they had not supported us. It would have been easy for people to have jumped on the bandwagon, but they didn't.

"Mind you, if we go to Old Trafford and win on Saturday it will be interesting to see what Sir Alex says then.

"Whatever Arsene Wenger said, it only took a few seconds to score those goals after Rory Delap's throws, so Arsenal had the rest of the 90 minutes to do something about it.

"They were not able to. He (Wenger) was just covering up for their lack of ability on the day, even though they are a fantastic team.

"He was the only person here that day who made those comments, nobody else saw the game like that.

"It has gone now, although I felt it was disrespectful to our players, who gave a lot in that game.

"It is a shame, because it has left something of an atmosphere over us. I noticed the first thing that Steve Bruce was asked after the game at Wigan on Saturday was `Are Stoke a dirty team?'

"People have kept it going and asked the question. People are being asked to give an answer about a game that they did not see. That is not right. It is laughable some of the things that have gone on since then."

Now Stoke aim to put the uproar behind them and reach the last eight of the Carling Cup at League Two side Rotherham's expense.

O'Connor added: "The spirits are really high, we would much prefer to be going to Manchester United on Saturday in a good run of form rather than being down in the dumps.

"Now we need to make sure we are in the Carling Cup quarter-finals by then and to make sure we do not take Rotherham lightly in any way.

"Our players have started to believe they can compete in the Premier League, but we have this cup tie first and we believe we have a strong squad and will be using a few other players for this one.

"But we know a win puts us in the quarter-finals so it is a huge game. It is a chance for us to win something. A win will breed confidence and take us into the United game on top form."

Rotherham will be without cup-tied striker Richie Barker.

The 33-year-old, who is in his second stint with the Millers on loan, has already appeared for parent club Hartlepool in this season's competition.

Fellow forward Reuben Reid came through unscathed following a knee injury after stepping off the substitutes' bench in the FA Cup at Aldershot on Saturday.

But Omar Garcia has impressed since making his Rotherham debut at the start of the month and the Spaniard could retain his place in the starting line-up alongside Drewe Broughton, with Reid on the bench again.

Manager Mark Robins has no new injury or suspension worries and is unlikely to make many changes to his starting line-up.

The Millers will be hoping to add Stoke to their list of prized scalps having knocked out Sheffield Wednesday, Wolves, Southampton, Leeds and Leicester in this season's cup competitions.