Too risky to play McNair after groin problem

Chris Coleman says he couldn’t risk playing Paddy McNair against Reading on Saturday.

The Northern Ireland midfielder was withdrawn from the starting line-up with a groin complaint sustained in the warm-up and was replaced by Darron Gibson (pictured).

There was brighter news for left-back Bryan Oviedo though, after the defender confirmed he went off with a hamstring problem and not a knee injury.

Coleman said post-match that Oviedo would be assessed after suffering a knee injury, but the Costa Rican took to social media to confirm it is a small hamstring pull and he hopes to be back within days.

Oviedo tweeted: “I do not have a knee injury, only a hamstring problem, it’s a small pull and in a couple of days I’ll be recovered. Thank you all for caring.” McNair, meanwhile, will be assessed. After a chat with the coaching staff on the pitch, McNair went down the tunnel and was withdrawn from the team to face Reading. McNair has recently returned from a 10-month spell out with a serious knee injury, but Coleman confirmed that it was a groin issue that caused him to withdraw.

Coleman said: “Paddy was injured in the warm-up. With Darron Gibson, we changed the shape of the midfield slightly. It was a groin problem for Paddy. What we don’t need is more injuries and we’ve had two more.

“Injuries are coming thick and fast and they’re coming in the wrong direction.

“We had a game plan and we worked on it, but then we lost Paddy in the warm-up, so we had to re-jig the shape of the midfield and the personnel. It’s Paddy’s groin where he’s feeling the problem that he felt in the warm-up.

“As soon as the whistle goes, it’s 100mph and he’s going to be at full pace, so there was definitely going to be a long-term injury there – it could have been two to three months – and we can’t afford any more so we couldn’t take the chance.”