MICHAEL CARRICK has confirmed that Tommy Smith and Anfernee Dijksteel will both miss the start of the Championship season.

Smith is nursing an ankle injury after being stretchered off the field during Saturday’s pre-season defeat to Real Betis, and while an exact comeback date for the full-back is still to be determined, he is facing a number of weeks on the sidelines.

The same is true of his fellow right-back, Dijksteel, who has been left with a leg injury after being the victim of a poor challenge during this month’s behind-closed-doors game with Vitoria Guimaraes that was part of Boro’s warm-weather training camp in Portugal.

Speaking in the wake of this evening’s 3-3 draw with Bradford City, Carrick said: “Tommy will be out for a few weeks. Exactly how long, we’re not quite sure yet, but it will be a few weeks.

“That’s obviously a disappointment, but it’s part of football unfortunately. Of course, we didn’t want to lose Tommy, but we’ll have to deal with that. Anfernee will be out for a few weeks as well.

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“That’s why you’ve got a squad. You’ve got to deal with setbacks and you’ve got to deal with spells through a season when people are fit and not fit. I want everyone to choose from, but you’ve got to deal with it so we can’t make a big deal out of it.”

Signing a new right-back would be one way to address the problem, but Carrick admits he is reluctant to panic when Smith will be returning at some stage to reclaim his place as the first-choice option on the right of the back four.

“It depends how long he’s out,” said the Boro boss. “For the sake of a few weeks, you can’t just fill an extra position because when he’s fit, the balance of the whole group changes. It depends on how long he’s going to be out, so we’ll have to make that judgement when we find out.”

Chuba Akpom and Jonny Howson are also currently unavailable, with Carrick admitting that the duo are both still to return to training.

Given that Boro only have one more friendly – at home to Auxerre at the weekend – it is looking increasingly unlikely that either will be able to start the opening game of the Championship season at home to Millwall a week on Saturday.

“We’ll have to see with Chuba and Jonny,” said Carrick. “We’ll have to see exactly when they come back. They’ve not been training with the group yet, so we’ll just have to make a call on that as it comes.”