MICHAEL CARRICK has admitted that he does not expect to have all of Middlesbrough’s injured players available for the forthcoming play-off campaign.
Boro were missing six senior players as they lost 2-1 at Luton Town this evening, with Carrick admitting that none were fit enough to be part of the squad.
While Chuba Akpom and Hayden Hackney were rested on the substitutes’ bench, Paddy McNair, Dael Fry, Tommy Smith, Riley McGree, Marcus Forss and Aaron Ramsey were all unavailable because of injury issues.
Some of the absentees are in a worse condition than others, but for the first time, Carrick has conceded that he does not expect them all to be available for the play-offs.
The Boro boss said: “They won’t all be back (for the play-offs) I don’t think, no. It’s kind of ongoing really.
“Some will hopefully be back a little bit sooner than others, but I don’t want to put a timeframe on them. I don’t want to put pressure on them.
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“We’re trying everything to get them fit. Some look a little bit worse than others, but that’s just how it is, that’s the cards we’re dealt.
“We’ll make the most of it and see week by week, as it ticks by in the next couple of weeks, who we can get back.”
Akpom and Hackney are likely to feature in Monday’s final away game of the regular season against Rotherham United, but with Boro now unable to finish in the automatic promotion places, Carrick will not be taking any unnecessary risks in the next two games.
The Teessiders are all-but-assured of finishing in the top four, which means they will be guaranteed a home second leg in the play-off semi-finals.
Carrick said: “It wasn’t like we had lots of decisions to make tonight. We left the two out (Akpom and Hayden), but they’re the only ones that would have been available.
“That was literally all the players that we’ve got fit. That’s who we’ve got at the minute, and we just thought it was best to give Chuba and Hayden a rest tonight.
“We’ll just have to make the decisions as we go. It’s a real balance. We’re definitely not taking our foot off the gas, and I think you could see that from the way the boys played.
“It wasn’t a case of us taking our foot off the gas at all, but it’s about getting the balance right with the freshness of lads who maybe need a bit of a top-up, and we’ll be looking to get that balance right in the next couple of games.”
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