AS a proud Teessider and diehard Middlesbrough fan, Dael Fry is relishing what he admits is an "extra special" game against rivals Sunderland this weekend.

And although he clocked up his 200th appearance for his hometown club last time out, Sunday's game will be a career first for the defender, who has never played at the Stadium of Light.

He knows, though, that it will be a rocking atmosphere for Sunday's televised lunchtime kick-off and believes a Boro win on Wearside would send yet another statement to their Championship promotion rivals.

READ MORE: 'That's what I live for': Dael Fry on 'crazy' Boro achievement & perfect celebration

“Do you know what, I’ve never played there [Stadium of Light] in my career, I’m excited to go there," said the 25-year-old.

"I’ve heard the atmosphere is really good and I’m sure our away supporters will be excellent on the day. I’m really looking forward to that. They’re the games you want to play in your career - a big derby for us.

"We haven’t been there for quite a while now, so I’m looking forward to it. We want to go there and play our football and try and play in the right way and hopefully we can go there and get the win.

"It is that little bit extra special for me because I’m from Middlesbrough and know what it means to the fans and the club. They’re right next to us in the table as well, so if we can go there and get the three points, it will be absolutely amazing.”

Boro climbed to fourth in the table thanks to last week's hard-fought win against rivals Millwall - their seventh success in the last eight games. The picture on Teesside looks a lot different to what it did when these sides met earlier in the season at the Riverside, Riley McGree's goal giving Boro what was just their second win of the season and lifting Chris Wilder's side to 17th in the table.

Boro have since been transformed by Michael Carrick and Fry says the togetherness and belief in the dressing room can ensure their Championship charge continues.

He said: “We knew going in that a win last weekend would take us up to fourth, so it was nice to get that because the table is so tight at the minute. Hopefully we can start to pull away a little bit in the weeks ahead.

"Togetherness is a massive thing in our group. I’ve been in dressing rooms where there are little cliques, but this one genuinely is all together. It’s fantastic. We play table tennis and darts after training and we all just enjoy coming in every day, which I think really shows on the pitch.

"We really believe, but we have to take every game as it comes. The table is so tight. We can only look at that next game at Sunderland, and we can’t look at anything extra. We all know what the end goal is, but we’re not thinking about it, we’re just taking each game as it comes and trying to improve week in, week out.

"I looked at that Brighton game as a real learning curve. If we’re going to get to the Premier League, that’s what we’re going to face week in, week out. It was a good test for us, but the important thing was to not dwell on that and not let it affect our confidence, which is obviously what we managed to do."

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Meanwhile, Boro striker Matthew Hoppe has been selected for the US national team's annual January training camp.

It's a big boost for the 21-year-old, whose last appearance for his national team came in October, 2021. The USA face Serbia next Wednesday in Los Angeles and Colombia a week on Saturday in California.