MICHAEL Carrick believes Middlesbrough were starting to see "the real Emmanuel Latte Lath" before his injury - and with the striker now fit again and returning to action against Aston Villa, Boro's head coach has a welcome dilemma up-front for tomorrow's visit of Chelsea.

With Josh Coburn battling his own injury issues at the end of last year, Latte Lath had started seven successive games for Boro and scored three goals before he was forced off in the Carabao Cup win at Port Vale.

That was a blow for Boro and the striker, who had benefited from his run in the side and was starting to build a real on-pitch understanding with those around him.

But there were no signs of rust as the Ivorian made his return to action from the bench against Aston Villa. He looked fresh, sharp, caused problems and was desperately unfortunate when Matty Cash's shot from distance deflected off him and crept into Boro's bottom corner.

Now, Carrick has a decision to make ahead of the Carabao Cup semi-final first leg.

“Yeah he’s in contention [to start]," said Carrick of Latte Lath.

"It was similar to Hayden (Hackney) with Manu really, he’s come back in this week but hasn’t had a lot of football recently.

"It was always the intention to try and get him half an hour there or thereabouts today. I thought Josh did particularly well again, which is great because it gives us two great options. There is definitely a case for either of them playing on Tuesday."

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Carrick has talked in the past about Boro's "deliberate" decision to have two very different strikers on their books in Coburn and Latte Lath. The former excels at holding up the ball and bringing Boro's other forwards and runners into play, while Latte Lath can use his speed to stretch defences.

"His pace, sharpness, unpredictability, it can be a defender's nightmare," said Carrick of the summer recruit.

"That's exactly what he offers. He's definitely a threat and a weapon for us if you use him in the right way."

Boro were aware of the need for patience with Latte Lath after his summer arrival as the striker set about getting to grips with his new surroundings and a new league and style of football.

Carrick said: "I think he's settled in really well. He needed to adapt to playing with new teammates in a new league and a totally new environment but you could just before he got his niggle he was coming into some really good form.

"You could see the real Manu. He looked good again (against Villa)."