DAEL FRY, Matt Crooks and Emmanuel Latte Lath return to Middlesbrough's starting line-up for this evening's Carabao Cup semi-final first-leg game with Chelsea.

The trio were all on the substitutes bench for Saturday's FA Cup defeat to Aston Villa, but they return to the starting side at the Riverside tonight.

Jonny Howson is also back in the Boro side, with Michael Carrick having made four changes from the team at the weekend.

Matt Clarke, Morgan Rogers, Sam Greenwood and Josh Coburn all drop out of Boro's starting line-up. Clarke and Coburn are on the bench, but Rogers is suspended after picking up two bookings in the earlier stages of the competition and Greenwood is cup-tied after having played for Leeds in a previous round.

Carrick switched to a five-man defence for the weekend's FA Cup game, and it looks as though he will be adopting the same formation tonight.

That will mean Fry playing between Rav van den Berg and Lukas Engel at centre-half, with Isaiah Jones playing as a right wing-back and Alex Bangura lining up on the opposite flank.

 

MIDDLESBROUGH (5-3-1-1): Glover; Jones, van den Berg, Fry, Engel, Bangura; Hackney, Howson, Barlaser; Crooks; Latte Lath.

Subs: J Jones, Clarke, Gilbert, Coburn, O'Brien, Kavanagh, McCabe, Bridge, Bilongo. 

CHELSEA (4-3-3): Petrovic; Gusto, Disasi, Silva, Colwill; Fernandez, Caicedo, Gallagher; Palmer, Madueke, Sterling.

Subs: Bergstrom, Bettinelli, Williams, Gilchrist, Golding, Mudryk, Washington, Broja.