Mark Hughes has received further fitness boosts ahead of this afternoon's home game against Reading with both Roque Santa Cruz and Ryan Nelsen in contention.

Leading scorer Santa Cruz withdrew from international duty, missing Paraguay's World Cup qualifiers against Peru and Uruguay, after an MRI scan revealed he was suffering from tendonitis, while Nelsen has been sidelined with a hamstring problem he picked up in the UEFA Cup defeat in Greece against Larissa last month after some old scar tissue worked its way loose.

But both have benefited from the fortnight break for internationals and have forced their way into Hughes' plans to give the Rovers boss a selection headache ahead of the visit of Steve Coppell's Royals.

"We've had a lot of people away and thankfully everybody's come back fit and well and gives me a lot of choices," he said.

"That's the quality of the squad we've got. We've got good depth at the moment and as always I'll pick a team that I think will win the game. It's up to me to get that decision right.

"But we've got a lot of games coming up - hard games against good opposition. We've got the game at the weekend, Spurs away, Liverpool, Man United coming up as well, Portsmouth away in the Carling Cup, so there are some big, hard games that will test us physically and mentally so I'm going to have to use the squad."

He added: "Ryan's had a decent week. Obviously he's missed a little bit of training time and game time so it's important that he's okay," said Hughes.

"But he's a lot happier with the injury and he does actually feel like he's freer in that area, which we felt would happen because there was certainly a release of scar tissue there, which has helped him.

"He still gets a little bit of pain but I'm sure, knowing Ryan, he'll be wanting to be involved this weekend, but we'll see how he goes.

"Roque's got tendonitis in his knees. In the weeks leading up to the international break I think he was having pain in his knees but at a manageable level, and I think that's the case with tendonitis - you can play with it and it's manageable but there can come a point where it does irritate too much and you have to address that, and that's what we've been trying to do in this international week.

"We've tried to get the inflammation down and make it less uncomfortable for him and we'll see how he is. We'll see if he's at a manageable level with it.

"But we don't want to compromise him. If we're not happy with it then he won't play."