Defensive dilemma faces Thomas Frank ahead of Brentford’s clash with Reading

Posted Thursday, December 17, 2020 by PA

Thomas Frank has a dilemma in defence ahead of Brentford’s clash with Reading in the Sky Bet Championship on Saturday.

Ethan Pinnock was shown a straight red card during Tuesday’s 1-1 draw at Watford and is set to serve a one-match ban this weekend.

Charlie Goode was introduced in midweek for his first appearance in more than a month and may start against the Royals if Pontus Jansson fails to recover from an ankle injury.

Marcus Forss returned from illness to come off the bench in the Vicarage Road clash but Christian Norgaard (ankle) was not involved and continues his rehabilitation ahead of an anticipated return this month.

Reading have a whole host of injury concerns and Veljko Paunovic is likely to be without most of them for the rest of 2020.

John Swift has made good progress after a hamstring issue and may return at the end of the month but Yakou Meite (knee) and Lucas Joao (hamstring) are out until January.

It is a similar story for Felipe Araruna, Andy Yiadom (both knee) and George Puscas (hernia) while Omar Richards joined the aforementioned list with a muscle problem which forced him out of Wednesday’s 2-1 loss to Norwich.

The Royals set up without a forward against the Canaries – due to their problems in attack – and could be forced into the same tactic this weekend.