MICHAEL Carrick will continue to carefully manage Josh Coburn's Middlesbrough workload after the striker underlined his importance with a fine second half showing and goal from the bench at Huddersfield.

Since starting the win over Leicester, Coburn had been restricted to just 39 minutes of football prior to Friday night's trip to Huddersfield because of a niggling groin problem.

He's now pain-free but cautious Carrick is still treading carefully with the young striker, who had a big impact after being introduced from the bench in the early stages of the second half at the John Smith's Stadium.

Coburn scored the opener for Boro at Huddersfield and led the line well, leaving Carrick with a decision to make ahead of the New Year's Day visit of Coventry. Sammy Silvera, who has started as the central forward for the last three league games, is linking up with the Australia squad on Monday ahead of the Asian Cup, while Matt Crooks and Emmanuel Latte Lath were both missing at Huddersfield because of injury.

Carrick said of Coburn: "He's alright at the minute but we've had to ease him back in, we've had to be careful.

"He's had a lot of football then he picked up the injury so we've had to nurse him back a little bit.

"He could only get through so many minutes really, today was a bit longer, it was the right time and it was a big moment. Morgan (Rogers) again creating and having a big impact in terms of his end product and winning the penalty. And it was a terrific finish from Josh.

"It's a balance to get lads back and keep lads fit because the lads that are fit have played an awful lot of football, a lot of minutes so we have to be careful from that.

"Josh understands it. He totally does. He's been sound, he's been ready for his chance and he took it tonight."

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Carrick will now closely monitor his squad ahead of Monday's visit of Coventry.

Anfernee Dijksteel is a doubt having hobbled off in the early stages of the second half at Huddersfield while Crooks was left out because of a niggling injury that has troubled the forward since the cup win at Port Vale.

Carrick said: "Anf felt something, he felt it at half-time and was aware of it. There was probably going to be changes soon anyway because of the way the game was going, we needed a bit of a change, but in the end we had to look after Anf a little bit. Hopefully it's not too bad. I'm not exactly sure how he is at the moment, we'll have to wait and see.

"We've been nursing Crooksy over the past two or three games where he's been in and out and having little bits off the bench. We've had to be careful with him because he's had a bit of a niggle as well.

"Tonight was one of those where we couldn't risk it. Hopefully in the next few days we'll have him back."