Reading boss gives injury update ahead of Hull City match

Hampered by a serious injury crisis all season, Paunovic and Reading supporters have started to see the squad return to some sort of health in recent weeks with the likes of Alen Halilovic and Femi Azeez getting back on the pitch - although another ten remain out.

"In terms of recovering players we are where we are but in terms of losing players, we haven’t lost any more...yet...so that’s a positive," Paunovic said on Thursday.

"He (Junior Hoilett) started his integration on the grass, non-contact mostly, getting back into shape, getting back to the right fitness so that he can join the rest of the team, but he's not ready yet.

"Andy (Rinomhota)'s also back on the grass but he’s still behind Junior. We expect Junior in the next couple of weeks to join the group and be available for matches.

"Jahmari (Clarke) initially was five weeks away and he’s progressing well so still I think a couple more weeks before he’s with the team. Those are the closest ones."

Since scoring a brace vs Birminhgam, Clarke has been out of action with an ankle problem. Image by: JasonPIX

While a few of Paunovic's missing men are set to return to the squad in the coming weeks, there are plenty who are still set for lengthy spells on the sidelines.

"Lucas Joao is also progressing well and hopefully, he’ll start working on the grass in the next couple of weeks. He had two procedures, one on his hip and one on his shoulder to fix the dislocation he had, he suffered almost every time he fell. So that’s a positive, he’s improving very very well, and he’s in a very good state of mind. Our medical staff did a very good job and took advantage of the long break for him to fix a couple of things.

"Tom (McIntyre) initially was projected to be back for December but unfortunately, he had a setback when he went and worked on the grass. Now we have to wait for January.

"Michael (Morrison) is settling well, has seen a specialist, they believe he’s progressing very well, but he’s looked slightly behind what we were expecting. We expected him to be back in the middle of December but now we have to push that back to maybe early January."

"Felipe (Araruna) is working, he’s in training. He has a little bit irregular build-up of his form because he’s had setbacks every time he accumulates load. So it’s very careful until we get him to play games with the U23s and he’s comfortable and doesn’t have consequences the next day. Clinically he’s fine but he now had to deal with the load which triggers other issues in his fitness. But hopefully, he can adjust to that soon. Every time he played a game when the load was maybe too much for him it caused him a little setback. But clinically he’s recovered.

"Yakou (Meite) is ahead of most of the people with his kind of injury at this time in his recovery. The difference between his left and right leg in terms of the power and balance is only 10% and normally athletes at this point in his recovery the difference is between 20% and 30%. He works hard. He works really hard. He stays here at Bearwood, sleeps here between his sessions because he wants to come back as soon as possible. Great example of commitment and hard work and resilience. So he’s ahead but definitely not ready yet to work with the team outside. We will be happy if we could see him back in February and if not then March.

Midfielder Ovie Ejaria is the latest Reading player to miss time through injury. Image by: JasonPIX.

As well as the long-term absentees, captain Liam Moore and midfielder Ovie Ejaria suffered soft tissue injuries prior to last weekend's trip to Swansea, but Paonvic doesn't expect either to be sidelined for an extended period of time.

"Liam is recovering really well, he’s a fantastic athlete, we are expecting him to be back in the next couple weeks. 

"Ovie is another one who’s progressing well, shouldn’t be a long term injury, around the same time as Liam he’ll be back. That looks good."