Defender Ibrahima Sonko returns from a one-match ban, but Sam Sodje is out having undergone knee surgery, and striker Dave Kitson remains sidelined.
Midfielder Dietmar Hamann is set to make his Manchester City debut.
Defender Hatem Trabelsi, another new-boy, may start on the bench, but Darius Vassell, Andreas Isaksson, Ben Thatcher and DaMarcus Beasley are out.
Reading (from): Hahnemann, Stack, de la Cruz, Murty, Halls, Sonko, Ingimarsson, Shorey, Little, Seol, Sidwell, Harper, Hunt, Gunnarsson, Convey, Lita, Doyle, Long, Oster, Cox.
Manchester City (from): Weaver, Hart, Distin, Dunne, Jordan, D Mills, M Mills, Onuoha, Richards, Sun Jihai, Trabelsi, Barton, Dabo, Hamann, Ireland, Reyna, Miller, Sinclair, Corradi, Dickov, Samaras.
READING play Manchester City in the Monday night match, in their second ever home fixture at this level, hoping for a repeat of the 3-2 opening day victory over Middlesbrough.
The Royals have since suffered successive defeats, away to Aston Villa and Wigan, but have not experienced three League losses on the trot since the last trio of fixtures in the 2004-05 Championship season.
Reading have won only half of their home League matches against Manchester City (three of six).
MANCHESTER CITY have played three Premiership games with improving results - loss, draw, win. They go to the Madejski Stadium aiming to tie up back-to-back top flight victories for the first time in 32 Premiership fixtures, since defeating Everton and West Ham at home on 2 and 16 October last year.
Stuart Pearce's side go into this round of matches as the only club in the top half of the Premiership table with just one goal scored. Indeed, the Citizens are still to score from open play.
City have won half of their League fixtures home and away against Reading (six of 12). The most recent was a 1-3 success at the Madejski on 27 March 1999 at third League level.
BBC