MARCUS Forss will play for Middlesbrough's Under-21s in their Premier League International Cup opener against Lyon at the Riverside tomorrow night.

Boro's youngsters kick off their European campaign against the French outfit and Mark Tinkler's side will be boosted by the inclusion of Forss, who will get crucial match minutes under his belt as he continues to work back to full fitness after a long injury lay-off.

The Finnish forward was out of action for almost seven months before he made his first team return from the bench in the defeat at Watford before the international break.

He was also introduced from the bench against Bristol City last week but Carrick then decided Forss would benefit from some more match action, so the former Brentford man played an hour for the Under-21s in their 4-2 win over Aston Villa on Friday night.

Dael Fry, who is close to a first team return after his own long lay-off, also featured for Tinkler's youngsters against Villa and got a crucial 45 minutes under his belt, his first taste of match action since early February.

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It's not clear at this stage whether Fry will play again tomorrow night, with Carrick and his support staff set to make a final decision on the centre-half today, but Forss will definitely be involved.

"We’ll see what happens next for them both and make a decision on what’s best for them going forward," said Carrick.

"Marcus is definitely going to play Wednesday. Dael is little different and we’ll see how he goes in the next day or so before making a decision on that. It’s a good game for them at the Riverside and I’m interested to watch and see how it goes."

Boro's team is expected to be strong for tomorrow night's game (7pm kick-off), with the likes of Harley Hunt, George McCormick, Law McCabe, Fin Cartwright and Ajay Matthews - who have all played for the first team - having started against Villa last time out.

Former Huddersfield Town striker Hazeem Bakre continued his impressive development with a hat-trick.