After so many injuries, Slaven Bilic smiled this morning as he counted in his head when asked about players he thought would be back in first-team contention at the start of February.

At one point the Hornets had 16 players ruled out because of injury, suspension or ineligibility.

Now, though, while not naming names Bilic suggested that he expected four senior players would be in the running to be involved when the Hornets return to the Madejski Stadium on February 4, with more to follow in the weeks after.

“I expect a few of them to be back for Reading,” he said.

“The word that I use so much is balance. You want them back but you don’t want them to play one game and then be injured again.

“But there again, we have to find some position between that happening and us walking on eggs with these players.

“You want your players to be playing. It’s no good them being fit in June, you want them fit in the season.

“There’s a chance we might have more than one back for Middlesbrough, there’s a good chance we’ll have players back training with the first team. But let’s try and speed it up a bit – where that’s possible.

“You may not be able to play all of them for a full 90 minutes straight away, but it’s good to have them training with the squad, and to be able to rotate them in the team.”

In the meantime, Bilic now has striker in Henrique Araujo, but that was just one of the three positions he outlined when last weekend he simply told the media “winger, midfielder, striker”.

“We are trying to sign players. It’s not easy but we are trying our best and we’re doing it one by one,” he said.

“Hopefully next week a couple of other guys will come to us. I’m quite sure that is going to happen.

“The club is in a positive state and we know what we have to do. All clubs are trying to be active. But although the injuries have affected our situation, it was the plan before all that happened to make signings.

“We need quality and we need numbers.”

There has been much debate among fans about how loan players, young players and permanent signings all fit into the 25-man squad, but Bilic is not concerned.

“With so many youngsters and 25 spots available, we are still in a situation where we can bring three players in without needing to move people around,” he said.

“Joseph Hungbo has gone to Huddersfield and I think that is a good move for him. I said to him that he has everything but now he has to step up and play regularly.

“He is a brilliant guy, he deserves this chance and I wish him all the best.

“But we don’t need to do a lot of that. If we bring guys in then maybe we will have to look, but I don’t think we will need to move people around.”