MICHAEL Carrick has stressed the importance of patience with Darragh Lenihan and Dael Fry, with the duo set to again be missing when Middlesbrough head to Derby County this weekend.

The centre-halves, who missed the bulk of last term, haven't been involved in the first two games of the season and Carrick isn't yet able to put a timeframe on when he expects the pair to be available to return.

He did reveal, however, that Lenihan is dealing with a fresh problem rather than the ankle injury which kept him out of the vast majority of last season and required surgery.

"He had his ankle operation and his ankle is fine," said Carrick.

"We have to manage them (Lenihan and Fry) a bit.

"Both of them have had a couple of ups and downs really of being out for so long. Coming back into training, it's quite common to pick up little niggles here and there.

"We're managing them through really. I've said it before about being patient. They won't be involved this weekend."

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Carrick is still waiting to discover the severity of Jonny Howson's injury after the captain was forced off in the second half of Wednesday night's win at Leeds with a hamstring problem.

"It's still a bit early really, there hasn't been enough time to see if it's going to settle down or not. I'm hoping it's not too bad but at this stage we're guessing really."

Carrick also revealed that Law McCabe and Sonny Finch have been nursing slight niggles, hence their absence from the squad against Swansea and Leeds.

He said: "Law just picked up a niggle. He twisted his ankle but he's back in training next week.

"Finny is similar, just a small niggle, he's missed maybe seven or eight days but he'll be back next week."