MIDDLESBROUGH defender Tommy Smith could be sidelined for the rest of the season after suffering a serious Achilles injury in Saturday’s win over Birmingham City.

The right-back has suffered major damage, and now faces a lengthy period of rehabilitation that will rule him out for a number of months.

There is a chance he could return before the end of the campaign, but Michael Carrick admits he is planning for the eventuality of Smith being unavailable for the whole of the rest of the season.

“It’s a big blow,” said the Middlesbrough boss, who will now be relying on Rav van den Berg and Anfernee Dijksteel to fill the right-back slot, with Paddy McNair and Isaiah Jones also available as potential options. “We don’t want to lose any players from the group because they’re all so important, and Tommy is a massive part of that.

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“He’s played a huge part over the year or so especially, since I’ve been here. It’s a big blow for us. He’ll be missing for most of the season, if not maybe all of it.

“There’s not much more to say apart from that we’ll do all we can to support him and try to get him back as quickly as we can.

“It’s been one of those times really, in terms of losing a few and losing boys for longer than we would have hoped for, but that’s football really. You’ve got to deal with it – we’ll back Tommy and support him, and get him back when we can.”

Boro’s injury problems are piling up, with Darragh Lenihan, Riley McGree and Marcus Forss all facing a number of weeks on the sidelines.

None of the trio will be available for Saturday’s home game with Stoke City, and they are not expected to feature in next week’s Carabao Cup fourth-round game at Exeter City either.

“Marcus is going to be out for a number of weeks, unfortunately, with his thigh,” said Carrick. “Darragh and Riley won’t be available for this weekend either, but there’s not really a timescale of either of them.

“With Darragh, we’re still doing a bit of investigating and assessing. He’s got a problem that’s affecting his Achilles and his ankle. It seems to be related.

“Riley’s got one of those injuries with his foot where it’s a little bit day by day and step by step. We’re having to take it as it comes a bit, so the timeframe is not easy to give on that one.”

There is better news on Emmanuel Latte Lath, with the summer signing from Atalanta having recovered from the illness that kept him out of Tuesday night’s win at Norwich City.

Lukas Engel suffered a knock at Carrow Road, but is back in full training and available to face Stoke, while Hayden Hackney has also recovered from the knock he suffered against Norwich. Hackney, however, is suspended for this weekend’s game after picking up his fifth booking of the season against the Canaries.

“Manu is good,” said Carrick. “He’s had a couple of days to rest and recover and shake off the illness that he unfortunately had, and now he’s fine. Lukas got a knock but he’s fine, and Hayden’s okay too.”