Reading midfielder Danny Guthrie has apologised to the club for his refusal to play in their Premier League clash with Sunderland.

The Royals’ manager Brian McDermott confirmed after the game that the 25-year-old made the decision not to join up with the rest of the squad as they slipped to a 3-0 defeat.

Guthrie has since been fined two-weeks’ wages for his actions, and said sorry to the club and their fans:

"I hold my hands up and apologise. It's something that we will deal with internally," he is quoted by the Reading Post.

"There's no problem with anyone. I have my reasons for what happened, it shouldn't have happened, but it did. My head just wasn't right."

The ex-Newcastle man went on to insist that he is happy at the Madejski Stadium and not considering moving on in January:

"I love being at this club - I just want to play football,

"I've never had problems anywhere I have been and I just want to get back to playing football.

“This is a very rare situation for me."

Guthrie began his career with Manchester United, before switching to Liverpool as a youth player.

After making just a handful of appearances for the Reds, he moved on to Newcastle, where he became a key first-team player.

He moved to reading during the summer as part of McDermott’s plan to keep the club in the Premier League.