Reading FC have been dealt a major blow in their survival chances with Andy Rinomhota and Yakou Meite out for the rest of the season. 

Both pulling up after Saturday's 1-0 win over Blackburn Rovers, the pair will be missing as Paul Ince and his side look to pull themselves away from the Championship relegation zone.

Speaking to the media ahead of the crunch clash with relegation rivals Barnsley on Saturday, Ince described it as a 'big blow' for the Royals.

He added: "Andy is out, Yakou is out. Losing Andy is massive because that midfield with Josh, Swifty and Drinks, we looked strong. It’s unlike Andy because he such a warrior. He doesn’t come off unless he’s hurt.

"He carried on maybe a little bit longer than he should ve done but he’s ripped some muscle off of the bone so it’s going to be seven or eight weeks, his season is done, which is a massive blow for us.

"Yakou went for a header and did his ankle so you’re looking at five to six weeks. At the moment we’ve only got one centre-forward in Lucas, if we lose him you can imagine the ramifications on that so we’ve got to be careful what we do with them.

"Knowing Yakou he’ll want to come back in two weeks but we’ve got five games in that two weeks so we’ve got to look at that and see what we can do.

"I might have to get my boots back on for Saturday."

"You think you've got something going and then you lose one or two players but we've got to remain positive."

In other injury news, Alen Halilovic is out for another two weeks with a thigh issue, but in more positive news left-back Baba Rahman is back training for the first time since Ince arrived.

Ince continued: "Baba is back. He's done everything at Chelsea and they sent him back last week. He's in good form. He's one we've missed so it's great to have him back. He's a great character."