We are pleased to announce that 26-year-old centre-back Terell Thomas has put pen to paper on a short-term contract with the Royals until the end of the current campaign.
Thomas, who has been training with the Royals for a number of weeks and has twice featured for our Under-23s whilst on trial with the club, has impressed enough to earn a short-term deal at Reading under Interim Manager Paul Ince.
Thomas arrives to further bolster a defensive group that includes experience in the shape of Michael Morrison and Scott Dann as well as youth in the form of Tom Holmes and Tom McIntyre.
However due to unprecedented injury, illness and international absence this season, defensive consistency has proven problematic throughout 2021-22. So the arrival of Thomas will add invaluable strength in depth to a squad focused on picking up as many points as possible in the final eight games of the campaign.
After a youth career with Arsenal, Thomas joined Charlton Athletic as a teenager before keeping a clean sheet on his professional debut during a loan spell with Woking in 2015.
He signed for Wigan to also keep a clean sheet on his EFL debut in a Latics win at MK Dons, before a loan switch to Sutton United and then a permanent move to AFC Wimbledon in 2018.
The 6’3” centre-back totted up nearly 100 appearances for the Dons but last summer joined Crewe Alexandra, spending the first half of this season as a Railwayman in League One. Now he joins the Royals for the final but all-important closing stages of the Championship season.
Chief Executive Dayong Pang said, “We have eight games remaining this season and we want to give ourselves the very best chance of winning our fight for second tier survival in the last six weeks of the campaign. Terell has been training well with our first team and has been professional and patient in his attitude and application on the training pitch and adding him to our first team group will bring competition for places at the back, helping to push our players to be at their very best in search of the points we need to stay up.”
The paperwork remains subject to the normal ratification procedures from the relevant football authorities. However, following the completion of his registration, Terell would be eligible to make his Royals debut at Oakwell after the international break.
