Ben Davies explains ongoing injuries on both ankles

North End were beaten by two goals in the space of four first half minutes, the first coming from the boot of John Swift, slotting home to finish off a good move for the Royals - which was also their first attack of the game.

The second came from the same source in Tyler Blackett, but was this time finished by Lucas Joao who found space to fire past Rudd.

Speaking after the 2-0 defeat, and his second game in three days following a return from injury, Davies gave a run through of his recent troubles.

“I had the injury at Leeds at home, which was my left ankle, which is still causing issues now,” he explained.

“When I injured my right one at Derby, that was more of a muscular one right down my ankle.

“I thought in the time that I’d be out that my left ankle would be fine as well but that hasn’t been the case.

“I’m on painkillers for both of them.

“I have to play at some point. I can’t wait forever for both of them to be sorted properly.

“There was cartilage that broke away from the front of my ankle, now that’s down the back of my ankle.

“It’s still swollen but it’s not something that will stop me playing.

Davies believes that alack of training has hindered his perofrmances in his last two games, despite being a standout performaer against Reading.

“I haven’t trained that much,” he said.

“I’ve probably trained about 10 times in six weeks.

“It’s difficult to come in at Leeds and then again three days later and then maybe again on Wednesday.

“I’ve been dying to play because I’ve been missing it, it’s good to be back out there.

“It’s been difficult, I’ve felt okay, I feel like I haven’t played in around six weeks when I got back in the team.

“Even before that I wasn’t really training that much because I injured my ankle against Leeds and they were just prepping me for games.

“I was only really training once a week.

“I feel it’ll take me a few weeks to get back to full fitness but I’m in there and I’m trying my best like the rest of the lads.”

“Today it wasn’t good enough but hopefully on Wednesday it will be.”

Preston weren’t their usual, irrepressable selves at home to the Royals and were caught with Reading’s only two notable attacking moves.

The 24-year-old felt that PNE were just lacking a cutting edge that their Berkshire counterparts were not.

“It was a tough day, I thought they were clinical when they got their chances and I’d say we struggled to break them down.

“I’d also say we created a lot of chances ourselves we just struggled to put them away.

“It’s frustrating really.

“We had a chance early on with Pottsy, good save, we had a chance with Clarkey in the second half, good save.

“Then one fell to Seani and he just couldn’t get it out of his feet.

“We’ve played worse but they were clinical once they got their chances, once you go two down at home, it’s hard.

“When the chances came along for us, we didn’t manage to take them.”