The wife of on-loan Norwich City striker Nelson Oliveira is calling for a 'lengthy ban' for Aston Villa defender Tyrone Mings after a 'disgusting' challenge which left her husband needing facial surgery.

The Portugal international suffered two horrible gashes and a suspected broken nose while in action for Reading on Saturday, coming off in the 73rd minute of the 0-0 home draw with Aston Villa after lengthy treatment.

The Royals confirmed on Monday morning that Oliveira was recovering in hospital after surgery after Mings had effectively stood on his face in a challenge.

The former Ipswich Town player, on loan at Villa from Bournemouth, said he felt 'awfully sorry' for the forward after the incident, with the defender was not even shown a yellow card at the time.

Reading have since updated their fans in a Twitter post saying: 'As a club, we ensured that the referee and the FA were fully aware of an incident during Saturday's match which caused injury to our striker, Nélson Oliveira.

'But as the incident was seen by the ref at the time, we understand no retrospective action can or will be taken by the FA.'

Oliveira posted on Instagram following his surgery, saying: 'Finally at home. I want to thank the entire medical team at @ReadingFC and the Royal Berkshire Hospital who helped me brilliantly during these tough days, I have now words to say how grateful I am.

'Thank you to all the people who sent me messages sharing love and support that will definitely help me get back even stronger!

'A special thank you to my lovely and beautiful wife @melrodrigues22 for always standing by my side in every moment. See you soon.'

However, the wife of the 27-year-old former Nottingham Forest and Swansea loanee, who is set to stay with Reading until the summer, was in no mood to hold back.

'Just want to say that Nelson is much better and he will come home tomorrow,' Mrs Rodrigues wrote on her Instagram account. 'It was a sad day for us and I hope someone will appeal for this guy to get a lengthy ban!

'There's absolutely no excuse for his behaviour. He knew where his head was. Any injury is upsetting but something like this is just disgusting.

'I hope something will happen, he can't get away with that! He's got previous! Thank you all for the messages, love and support.'

Mings immediately called for Oliveira to get attention after that clash and added in another post on Twitter that: 'No one feels worse than me.'

Former top-flight referee Dermot Gallagher was asked for his opinion on the incident by Sky Sports, with 25-year-old Mings having been banned for five games for stamping on the head of Manchester United and Sweden star Zlatan Ibrahimovic in 2017.

He said: 'In these instances, the only person that knows whether the act is intentional is the player that's involved – he's the only one that knows what's going through his head.

'The FA will look at it but will have to make that judgment – what was in the player's mind? Did he try to get over him? Only Mings knows the real truth.'