Reading vice-captain Tom Holmes delved into his season-long loan move to Belgian side Roeselare, admitting that it was 'not a smooth loan.'

Now an established star in Paul Ince's first team, with over 100 first team appearances to his name, the 22-year-old played 11 games in the second tier of Belgium for the 2019/20 campaign.

From sharing a hotel room 'the size of your shed' and the club being put into administration, the Reading-born academy graduate explained all on a podcast with his agency, Midas Sport.

"Looking back on it, I was purely at a stage where I’d go anywhere because I went to the middle of nowhere in Belgium just to play some football," Holmes admitted. "I would have gone anywhere to get games and be in a first-team dressing room because it was obvious that I wasn’t going to get that at Reading. It came up within the space of a few days. I had an injury in pre-season and only had a couple of weeks left in the transfer window to get it done. I got  back fit and within a couple of days of hearing about the interest I was in Belgium.

"It was not a smooth loan whatsoever, there were lots of difficulties. I didn’t play for the first three months, I didn’t have an apartment and was just in a hotel room the size of your garden shed with another player, the club went into administration and we ended up training on the local 3G. I had an out of body experience like ‘how have I ended up here?’  I wasn’t playing any football, the manager didn’t really like me, I didn’t have many friends in the team- a lot of things weren’t falling into place.

Reading Chronicle:

"I just decided to stick at it because I knew I was of the level to play in the team, I just wasn’t getting the opportunity. Fortunately, there was a suspension, or an injury and I got thrown in. I did well but got taken out of the team, I wasn’t there on merit I had to play because there was nobody else, and then I finally forced my way into the team. The manager got sacked and I was thinking ‘all of that for nothing.’"

Despite his challenges, the central defender looks back three years on and appreciates the impact the spell had on his now blossoming Royals career.

"I only played 11 games, but I was playing men’s, professional football and I felt that I was an important part of the team. That’s how the [new] manager made me feel. Even though it was the second tier of Belgium, I was like ‘this is incredible, this is what I want to do.’ I had a taste of it at Reading but I wasn’t part of it, that was a different level at that age, but here I felt I can do it and perform. It was chalk and cheese the first few months to the last few months."