Marko Arnautovic is back from suspension for Stoke, but Jonathan Walters (knee) is a doubt, while Ramadan Sobhi (Egypt) and Wilfried Bony (Ivory Coast) are set to be absent for the Africa Cup of Nations, although Mame Biram Diouf (Senegal) has been given permission to play.
The visitors remain without a succession of players including Roberto Pereyra, who has a long-term knee injury, fellow winger Isaac Success (thigh), wing-backs Daryl Janmaat (groin) and Juan Zuniga (ankle), midfielder Valon Behrami (hamstring) and forward Stefano Okaka (thigh).
Midfielder Nordin Amarabat injured his ankle in the warm-up ahead of Sunday's defeat by Tottenham Hotspur and is not expected to be passed fit.
Did you know?
Stoke have won their last two league matches against Watford, after a run of six fixtures without a win against them (D2 L4). However, Watford are unbeaten in their last four league visits to the bet365 Stadium.
Troy Deeney has scored two goals in his three previous Premier League games against Stoke City.
Stoke have won three of their last seven home fixtures in the top-flight, losing only once in this run (D3).
Managers quotes
Mark Hughes: "We had a good result against Watford not too long ago and need to revisit that. If we play as well as we can we’ll be okay but we need to cut out the catastrophic errors as I keep calling them."
Walter Mazzarri: "If we look at the table we are doing even better than the starting objective. We could have been where Crystal Palace are or other teams are but we aren’t."