WHEN Middlesbrough's coaching and recruitment team sat down at the start of the summer and plotted their way through the transfer window, signing a central defender wasn't in their thinking.

Indeed, back in June head of football Kieran Scott told of how Michael Carrick might have a "problem" on his hands when it came to deciding between the four "top class centre-backs" on Boro's books.

But, as is so often the case in football, there was a twist in the tale. Dael Fry and Darragh Lenihan both picked up injuries and after a setback for Rav van den Berg early in the season, Boro were suddenly left with Matt Clarke as their only fit recognised centre-half.

Harley Hunt had arrived earlier in the summer but having only turned 17 in August, Boro were reluctant to rush the highly-rated teenager into action. Jonny Howson has covered at centre-half on several occasions for Boro but he too has been out injured so shifting the skipper wasn't an option.

All of the above led to Boro being forced into a transfer move in the last week of the window that had seemed incredibly unlikely just a couple of months earlier.

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Unexpected but shrewd - the signing of George Edmundson has been very quickly justified.

The centre-half has played every minute since his loan arrival from Ipswich Town and such has been his impressive start to life on Teesside, Matt Clarke - in the conversation for Boro's best performer in the first couple of months of the season - had to settle for a place on the bench at Watford after returning from a short spell on the sidelines with injury.

"George has done very well and shown a level of experience and maturity in the way that he’s played," said impressed head coach Carrick, with the centre-half having scored his first goal for the club at Vicarage Road before Boro's late collapse.

"He’s played right side, played left, he’s had different partners, and he’s not been flustered and nothing has fazed him. Credit to him for that."

It's not just how Edmundson has played on the pitch that has caught Carrick's eye but what he's offered off it. The 27-year-old has very recent experience of winning promotion from the Championship and is putting that know-how to good use.

Carrick said: "Being part of the Ipswich team last season and knowing what it takes to be successful in this league, and the confidence, has really shone through."

There are, though, some tricky decisions facing Carrick in the weeks ahead. Van den Berg has recovered from his injury to start at West Brom and Watford before the break, Clarke is now back and Fry won't be far away, with the Teessider having now got almost two weeks of full training under his belt after his lengthy lay-off.