Everton defender Lewis Gibson was highly unlikely to feature for Carlo Ancelotti's first-team in the 2020/21 league campaign. 

The youngster is yet to make his first-team debut for the Premier League side, and will be hoping that he can force his way into the squad in the coming seasons.

Gibson spent last year's campaign on loan with League One side Fleetwood Town, and made 11 appearances for Joey Barton's side as they narrowly missed out on promotion into the Championship after a defeat to Wycombe Wanderers in their play-off semi-final.

The defender would have hoped to have forced his way into the Everton setup after that loan spell in the third-tier, but that opportunity was soon dashed.

Everton signed Ben Godfrey from Norwich City, with the defender catching the eye with some strong performances for the Canaries, as they were relegated from the Premier League.

That pushed Gibson down the pecking order at Goodison Park, and he later moved to Championship side, Reading on a season-long loan deal.

The Royals have endured a hugely impressive season to date as well, with Veljko Paunovic's side currently sat top of the second-tier standings.

The Berkshire-based side have only dropped two points this term, and are seven points clear of second-placed Swansea City heading into their fixtures this weekend.

But it's not been the ideal start for Gibson, with the defender yet to make an appearance for Reading, which will come as a slight frustration to both the defender and his parent club Everton.

Paunovic has started experienced duo Michael Morrison and Liam Moore in the heart of the Reading defence for the majority of this year's campaign, with Gibson being an unused substitute for all of their league matches so far this term.

But Reading youngster Tom McIntyre has come on as a late substitute in some of those matches this season, and is seemingly ahead of Gibson in the pecking order at the Madejski Stadium.

Reading are set to return to action on Friday evening, when they take on Coventry City in front of the Sky Sports cameras, where a win would see the Royals move ten points clear at the top of the Championship table.