Michael Carrick is hoping Middlesbrough will be able to welcome three players back from injury on Saturday when they host Swansea City – delivering a rare positive injury update after the victory over Sheffield Wednesday.
Boro were without ten players against the Owls on Easter Monday but still ran out comfortable 2-0 winners after a dominant display. Now, Carrick is hoping that Alex Bangura, Rav van den Berg and Hayden Hackney can be reintroduced to the match-day squad, with Bangura already back in training.
Having revealed Marcus Forss and Riley McGree would miss the rest of the season after the Southampton draw on Friday, Carrick had rare positive updates on the trio. Bangura has been missing since pulling his hamstring in early January in the Carabao Cup first-leg win over Chelsea. Hackney, meanwhile, was hurt in a challenge late on at Stoke City at the start of March, while Van den Berg has missed the last three games after suffering a knee injury late on at Birmingham.
Carrick said: “There isn’t long left [in the season] but we’re hoping certainly for Rav, maybe Hayden for Saturday in terms of being back around the group. Dael [Fry] and Josh [Coburn] might be a little bit further, but hopefully they’ll be back in soon too.
“Alex Bangura is back training with group now too. He’s been out a while, so we’ll have to be patient. But that’s a positive and there will be lads coming back before the end of the season.”
While the trio might be back, Carrick is likely to take a cautious approach with them, despite the limited time in the season. Van den Berg had been close to returning on Friday at Southampton, with a late decision made before they travelled for that one that he wouldn’t.
Still not back in the side on Monday, Carrick explained: “Rav was close, to a point. But he’s 19, he’s played a lot of football this season. It would have been easy to put him back in today but we had the bigger picture in mind too. We have a duty to do the right things to look after the boys.
“He’s certainly done great things for us this season, but with the age he’s at, we’ve got to be careful with him. I said similar about Josh [Coburn] earlier in the season. It’s not just a case of, ‘throw him in, he’s fit or he’s 80 per cent fit’. There was a bit of that thinking in the decision not to pick him today. It just wasn’t perfect today but hopefully he will be back on Saturday.”
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