Reading boss Brian McDermott would be willing to select a player on orders from the chairman.

Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich forced Roberto Di Matteo to play Fernando Torres - a point of friction between the pair before he was sacked on Wednesday. But McDermott said he has never been put in that position by Reading owner Anton Zingarevich and would go out of his way to defy an owner if he did.

He aid: "If someone said to me if you don't play him you're sacked then I'd put him in the team. It's a no-brainer. Anton would never put me in that position. There might be other owners, I have heard of that before. He wouldn't put me in that position, and owners shouldn't do that."