Reading captain Andy Yiadom will be out until at least the end of September after procedures to heal his knee 'did not work.'
The club captain made 34 appearances last season, taking him into the '200 club' since arriving in 2018,
However, the 32-year-old did not appear in any of the final three League One matches after limping off against Bristol Rovers in April.
Struggling with his knee, multiple 'procedures' had been attempted to bring the Ghana international back early, but these proved unsuccessful.
"Andy was out at the last part of last season," boss Ruben Selles confirmed to the media on Saturday. "We gave time for the knee to settle and the different procedures the doctors did with him didn’t work and now we need to wait another six to eight weeks to see if he can come back on time. Otherwise, we need to find different solutions. There is no guarantee that after eight weeks he will be back with us."
Left-back John Ryan is the only other player missing from Saturday's 1-0 win over Queens Park Rangers, with a strong squad gaining valuable minutes against the Championship outfit.
Jeriel Dorsett and Kelvin Abrefa were present but not used.
"It was a really long summer for them- eight weeks- but almost everyone came back fit which is important because from day zero we demand a lot of intensity in our training sessions," Selles said. "During the season you have a couple of injuries but besides Andy Yiadom- which is a little bit longer term from the last season- we didn’t have any setbacks."
On Wednesday evening, the Royals travel to Wales for a friendly with more second-tier opposition, Cardiff City.
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