JAAP Stam admits Reading FC are still searching for the reason why John Swift keeps breaking down with a hamstring problem.

Royals were dealt a double injury blow on Saturday when both Swift and captain Paul McShane limped off in the first half of the 0-0 draw with Nigel Adkins’ Hull City at the KCOM Stadium.

Swift, 22, missed more than a month of football before Christmas having been out for a similar period near the start of the season.

And the England Under 21 star is facing another lengthy spell on the sidelines after a recurrence of the same injury.

Both Swift and McShane will be sent for scans this week and are likely to be ruled out for a minimum of two to three weeks.

“They were looking very good and also in training, but we had to make two subs in the first half which was a shame,” explained Stam.

“Generally you want to wait until the second half to change things and bring on some forwards or extra midfield players to create more chances which basically we couldn’t do.

“We also saw Garath McCleary was tired in the second half so we needed to make another change there.”

Swift had little rest last season as Royals reached the Championship play-off final before he joined up with the England Under 21 squad for the European Championships in Poland, helping Aidy Boothroyd’s Young Lions reach the semi finals where they lost to Germany on penalties.

That meant the former Chelsea midfielder had only a few weeks off from football to allow his body to recover from a gruelling campaign.

And Stam insists Royals have left no stone unturned in their quest to discover whether Swift has an underlying problem, though he admits they are still searching for answers.

Reading Chronicle:

Royals skipper Paul McShane also damaged his hamstring in the 0-0 draw at Hull City on Saturday.

He added: “We often save him (Swift) in training and don’t put him into full sessions. He had a few trips to the hospital to look at his body, what could be causing it and what we can do, but we didn’t find anything.

“He looked very in training when he last came back, but for some reason it still happens.

“Is it to do with travelling on the coach and sitting still for a long time which could be a possibility? But at the moment it’s very difficult to pinpoint what’s wrong with his hamstrings.”

Swift and McShane were both forced off against Hull in the first 30 minutes and were replaced by Sone Aluko and Tiago Ilori, forcing Stam into an early change of tactics.


The result means Royals have not won in seven Championship matches and have not scored in 292 minutes of action in all competitions after drawing 0-0 at Stevenage in the FA Cup a week earlier and losing 2-0 at home to the then bottom club Birmingham City before that.

Reading remain 18th in the table, though Saturday's stalemate meant they increased the gap between them and relegation zone to five points.

“It’s always good to get a point away from home,” added Stam.

“Sometimes you want to have more but Hull needed the points as well and we knew we would be facing a good team and it wasn’t going to be easy.

“In the last few weeks we’ve spoken about going back to basics, working hard and defending hard so we don’t concede and get that clean sheet so you at least get a point. Hopefully you build from there and get all three points.

“We could have been better on the ball on Saturday but there wasn’t a lot of space to play in and we didn’t always use it well and sometimes gave the ball away too easily.

“Hull are a threat and they played a lot of forward balls quickly and tried to turn us which is not always easy to defence but I thought we coped with that quite well.

“We didn’t create a lot of opportunities though we had some good set-pieces and Liam Moore had a free header in the second half and maybe should have scored. If it becomes 1-0 you never know what’s going to happen.

“But you could say this points for us is an important one and a good one.”

Royals return to Madejski Stadium tomorrow night for the FA Cup third-round replay against League Two Stevenage (8pm ko).

  • Follow the match live with the Reading Chronicle.