We take on The Royals in an early kick-off three days on from the draining 0-0 draw against Juventus in the Champions League and six days after Sunday’s majestic 3-0 victory over Arsenal in the FA Cup final. However defender Eriksson says the exertions of those games, both mental and physical, will not be used as an excuse.

‘We are quite used to this now so we should be able to manage it,’ said the Chelsea captain.

‘It’s all about doing the recovery strategies and really taking responsibility - and also using fresh players. We have a big squad so there are lots of options to bring energy to our game. It will be a mix of those two.’

The Royals have moved up to eighth in the table having won three of their previous four WSL matches.

‘Reading are always tough to play,’ Eriksson added. ‘They are a very energetic team that can get a result against any team in the league so we will have to bring our best game.’

The energy-sapping draw against Juventus means we still have to obtain a point from our final Group A game to be sure of progressing to the Champions League quarter-finals. Eriksson said qualification should already be assured.

‘We were dominant from minute one until 90. We played really good football, we just lacked the final part of our game.

‘We were that dominant in all parts of the pitch and should have had a goal. That’s the thing we have to look back on in the analysis and see what we can do better.

‘The way we played is really positive. We were extremely dominant against a tough side in Europe and it’s not often you dominate like this in the Champions League. So 100 per cent it was a good performance but it should have been a win.

‘It’s going to be massive because we didn’t get the win. It will be a really important and tough game. Luckily we will have a couple more days to recover from the Reading game to the Wolfsburg game which we need because we have to put in a top performance.’

The match at the Select Car Leasing Stadium kicks off at 11.30pm and it will be live on Sky Sports.

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