Nine points now separate Wigan Athletic from safety in the Championship as they prepare to travel to Steve Clarke's improving Reading on Tuesday night.

Malky Mackay's men are yet to win in 2015, losing five of their seven games in all competitions to remain stuck in the bottom three.

The Latics were in real danger of plummeting to the foot of the table on Saturday, but Blackpool couldn't take all three points from their eight-goal thriller against Nottingham Forest.

Blackpool (five) are the only side in the division with fewer away points than Wigan (nine), who have lost as many games on the road (10) as anyone else.

Mackay has been hit by a number of defensive problems since last week's 3-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest, with Liam Ridgewell returning to the United States and Leon Barnett suffering a slight knock.

The duo's absence is likely to see a brand new centre-back partnership as Jason Pearce and Harry Maguire ready themselves for their Latics debuts.

There is also the sad news that Honduran defender Juan Carlos Garcia has contracted leukaemia and is being treated in hospital.

Reading, meanwhile, enter the match on the back of a 2-1 win over Championship high-flyers Derby County in the FA Cup fifth round on Saturday, reaching the quarter-finals for just the fifth time in their history.

New signing Yakubu scored his first goal for the club to win the game and he will now hope to make his first start tomorrow night.

Victory at the iPro Stadium made it three wins in four games, but Reading did suffer defeat in their last league game by going down 2-0 at home to Leeds United last week.

That leaves them 17th in the table and just seven points clear of the bottom three.

Clarke has no new injury concerns and could go with a similar side to the one that started against Derby.

The Royals haven't beaten Wigan in league competition for seven-and-a-half years, with the reverse fixture on the opening weekend of the season a 2-2 draw at the DW Stadium.

Reading:

Form in Championship: DLDWWL
Form in all competitions: WDWWLW

Possible starting lineup: Federici; Kelly, Hector, Pearce, Obita; McCleary, Williams, Chalobah, Robson-Kanu; Yakubu, Pogrebnyak

Wigan:

Recent form: LDLDLL

Possible starting lineup: Al-Habsi; Perch, Maguire, Pearce, Taylor; Kvist, Herd, Cowie; Ojo, Clarke, McClean

Sports Mole says: 2-0

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