Middlesbrough have added former Aston Villa and Anderlecht assistant manager Aaron Danks to their first team coaching set-up.

Danks, 39, will join Jonathan Woodgate in assisting head coach Michael Carrick on Teesside.

Danks was most recently at Villa, where he was No.2 to Dean Smith and Steven Gerrard, before taking two games as caretaker manager after Gerrard's exit.

Before joining Villa, he was Vincent Kompany's assistant manager at Anderlecht. Danks also spent five years with the FA, where he worked his way up to assistant coach of the Under-21s team.

After Danks led Aston Villa to a 4-0 win over Brentford in one of his two games as caretaker manager, he was praised by winger Leon Bailey, who said: “He was very impressive. He did his thing. He really took charge in a short space of time and I have to give him a lot of respect for that. He was quite clear what he wanted from us."

Grant Leadbitter has stepped up to support the first team coaching staff in Carrick's first weeks in charge and the former club captain will continue his hybrid role working with both first team and the Academy, and providing a link between the two.

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