Cardiff City striker Lee Tomlin (knee) is likely to start on the bench despite scoring the winner against West Brom in midweek.
Boss Neil Harris said the striker "just about got through 30 minutes" in Tuesday's game.
Reading defender Tom McIntyre is back after serving a one-match ban for his sending off in the FA Cup tie between the two teams last Saturday.
Centre-half Matt Miazga (ankle) is set for a long spell on the sidelines.
“The challenge to the players is to build on the foundations that we’ve put in place," said Neil Harris. "We did that on Tuesday night with the win against the league leaders. The next step is to build on that and make it back-to-back wins or put an unbeaten run together.
“We want to repeat the performance on Friday night. We have to find that consistency over the course of 90 minutes, and for the next weeks and months into the end of the season.”
Match facts
- Cardiff are winless in six league games against Reading (D3 L3) since a 2-0 win in November 2015.
- Reading have kept a clean sheet in their past two away league trips to Cardiff, winning 1-0 in August 2016 and drawing 0-0 in May 2018.
- Since Neil Harris' first league match in charge in November, no Championship side has lost fewer games than Cardiff (two).
- Reading are winless in four games in all competitions (D2 L2), having won five of their previous seven matches.
- Two of the five Championship goals scored via a throw-in this season have been scored by Cardiff City, including Callum Paterson's goal against West Brom in their last game.
- Reading have won just one of their past 14 league games in Wales (W1 D7 L6), a 1-0 victory at Cardiff in August 2016 under Jaap Stam.