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Paul McShane is a pretty tough bloke, so when he misses out on a chance to Captain Reading at Old Trafford against his old club, you know it's a pretty serious injury. Well now Royals boss Jaap Stam has confirmed why McShane missed out on Saturday, with Stam telling the Reading Chronicle that the defender has had to have an operation to sort out a wrist injury picked up on Boxing Day against Norwich.
To clarify McShane has had wrist op. Stam felt better do it now and miss #MUFC than lose him for more league games #Readingfc
— Anthony Smith (@Smudgersport) January 7, 2017
Stam's rationale of getting the op out of the way seems a sensible one. While Joey van den Berg's performance in the defence at Old Trafford did leave a lot to be desired, it's unlikely even McShane would have stopped a rampant United side.
There's no definitive timetable for his return but he'll almost certainly be out of Thursday’s home game with QPR. We've seen one unverified source saying McShane believes its a 3-6 week recovery period which at the lower end would put his comeback around the Cardiff home game on the 28th, a game that could be postponed if City make it through to the fourth round of the cup. If it's six weeks though, the Reading Captain could miss as many as six or seven league games.
Fortunately it would appear defensive cover is on the way, with Tiago Ilori expected to complete a move to Berkshire any day now.
Even so, fingers crossed the Captain can make a full recovery as soon as possible.