If Reading want to reach another FA Cup Quarter-Final they'll have to do it without two of their best paid players as both Matej Vydra and Danny Williams have been declared highly doubtful for Saturday's tie with West Brom.
Manager Brian McDermott told the assembled media at today's news conference..
"They might do some training but it will be a tall order to get them both back playing because they haven't trained for a couple of weeks.
"If we could have one or two of them involved in the squad it would be good."
Reading's record with revealing the true state of injuries has been patchy at best over the past few years so it's worth taking Brian's words with a pinch of salt but if the pair are indeed out it's a big blow for our hopes of progression. Williams is less of a problem after Michael Hector, Oliver Norwood and Stephen Quinn did a decent job against Burnley but Vydra's absence is more problematic. With Yann Kermorgant cup-tied, Reading now have a severe shortage of recognised strikers on the books going into this weekend's game.
The likely candidate to lead the line would be Hal Robson-Kanu but McDermott did hint that new signing Deniss Rakels could make his full debut against the Premier League side.
Midfielder George Evans is cup tied so won't feature, while Aaron Tshibola looks likely to miss the rest of the season after surgery to fix a hamstring problem.
We'll have further updates and previews on Saturday's game later in the week here on The Tilehurst End.