WITH delight comes a dilemma for Michael Carrick - what to do with his Middlesbrough midfield?

Boro were boosted by the return of Hayden Hackney for Saturday's FA Cup tie against Aston Villa and with the 21-year-old coming through his hour unscathed, he's expected to be in the from the off against Chelsea tonight.

For a game of this magnitude, captain Jonny Howson will surely start. So what does that mean for Dan Barlaser? Does he drop out?

The former Rotherham midfielder has had to sit out plenty of games since his arrival a year ago, not because of anything he's done wrong, but rather a result of the excellence of Howson and Hackney.

But in the absence of Hackney over the last couple of months, Barlaser has enjoyed his best run of form in a Boro shirt. He's started 11 games in a row and has grown and improved over the course of that period. He was terrific against Aston Villa last time out, which is why Carrick has such a difficult call to make tonight.

"Dan has been really, really fantastic," said Boro's head coach.

"Along with Jonny, they’ve had to take a lot of the load and play a lot of minutes over quite some time.

"They’ve managed it really well. They train together every day and have done for a period of time and you can see that connection.

"The good thing about us with the midfielders we’ve got, they can all play with each other. Hayden coming back in is fantastic, Lewis (O'Brien) is coming back around to fitness again. It’s fantastic for me to have that chance to not necessarily pick the best one or best pairing but to have that flexibility.

"They’re all different in their own way. Dan has done really well. You can see him growing and his confidence and quality on the ball is there for everyone to see.

"We brought Dan here because we knew what he had and what he was capable of doing. He’s totally showing that. He’s very good on the ball, he sees a pass, he’s got composure, finds space well and passes forward a lot.

"That’s his strengths and so a lot of our work is about getting the players in positions and encouraging them to do things that will bring the best out of them. Dan’s certainly doing that now."

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So what does Carrick do tonight? Who misses out? Or is there a way to get all three in the starting XI? If the head coach opts for a back three and wing-backs again, as he did against Villa, is there a possibility that he plays a midfield three rather and two attackers rather than the other way round, especially with Sam Greenwood, Morgan Rogers, Finn Azaz, Marcus Forss and Riley McGree all unavailable. Or could Hackney be used in a slightly more advanced role or off the left? That's something Carrick has done in the past.

Regardless of which way he decides to go, it's a dilemma he'll welcome given the injury issues that have plagued Boro and how stretched his squad has been at times this season.