“It definitely affects us a lot, especially when the list is so long and some of the guys have a long time until they recover.
“That affects the resources, the options and it’s a fact. We’re not using it as an excuse but it’s a fact that we have to deal with.
“We were punished and it’s just not normal. Most of them were unavoidable. We will look at that and focus on recovering our guys.
“The nearest to come back is Swift and Joao is also on a good way to return, maybe for the Boxing Day game.”
While you can’t completely pin Reading’s demise completely on injuries, having so many key players out all at the same time it has definitely had an impact and meant that the club’s management staff have been forced to constantly chop and change their selections, something which will not have helped their recent fortunes.
You also have to take into account just how competitive the Championship is now and unlike other leagues, no result is a given with so many more clubs being able to compete at a high level, Reading’s drop in form was always quite likely.
As mentioned earlier, very few people would have expected the Berkshire club to begin the season the way they did, judging by their finishes in the past few seasons, ending up 14th, 20th and 20th respectively and last season’s top scorer, Meite having been out for a couple of weeks.