Injury Update: Brian McDermott Hopeful Deniss Rakels And Garath McCleary Will Be Fit For Birmingham City Clash

Brian McDermott is hopeful that attacking duo Deniss Rakels and Garath McCleary will be fit enough to feature for his side against 9th-placed Birmingham City this Saturday.

Speaking to the media ahead of the game, Brian said:

"Hopefully we’ve got Deniss back for selection, as well as Garath McCleary," said McCleary ahead of the meeting with Birmingham.  "They both trained yesterday, and they will both train today and tomorrow.

"So they should be back in the frame.  It’s more good players that are coming into the squad, which is good news.

"Everyone came through the game against Forest okay – we had a bit of a warm-down yesterday [Wednesday] and some of the guys trained and did a bit more."

Jamaican winger McCleary was called up to the squad for the latest round of international fixtures but was unable to play because of a calf injury, whilst striker Rakels had to pull out of the Latvia squad because of a hamstring problem.

While it's great that these two are hopefully back in action for the weekend, it's not likely either will start the match against the Blues — particularly as McDermott has been trying out a new 4-4-2 diamond formation.

In theory, you could play McCleary in 'the hole' and Rakels up front, it's more likely that the Reading boss will stick to the side that came back from 1-0 down to beat Nottingham Forest to try and make it three games won in a row.