Kitson faces two month lay-off

Steve Coppell will be forced to rush returning forward Nicky Forster into a festive flurry of action as leading marksman Dave Kitson has been told he will face two months on the sidelines.

Scan results confirmed that 23-year-old Kitson, who was stretchered off during Reading's game against QPR at the weekend, suffered medial ligament damage and will be out for six to eight weeks.

Coppell will now partner Nicky Forster with either Lloyd Owusu or Dean Morgan as he desperately seeks to find a striking combination that will fire in the goals in the absence of Kitson, the club's leading scorer.

Dave Kitson

With a mid-February return pencilled into the diary, the flame-haired forward will hope to play a full part in Reading's promotion run in.

There had earlier been fears that the flame-haired forward would miss the rest of the season with cruciate ligament damage.

However, scans confirmed that Kitson had only suffered an injury to his medial ligament - which is far less serious.

The player was relieved to hear he had not damaged his cruciates, although frustrated at the prospect of spending the next two months out of action.

"I didn't know what to expect really, we knew one ligament had definitely gone and we hoped the cruciate was ok because that would mean months and months on the sidelines. I'm lucky really," said Kitson, speaking to Reading World after receiving his scan results.

"Cruciate is a horrible word, great players like Gazza have had it and never been the same afterwards."

Kitson signed for Reading a year ago, making a £150,000 switch from Cambridge United. He has scored twelve Championship goals so far this season and is currently the clubs leading scorer.