DESPITE being saddled with an injury list that now stretches to nine senior players, Middlesbrough manager Gordon Strachan is extremely unlikely to make any new signings ahead of tomorrow’s Championship home game with Swansea.

Barry Robson, Isaiah Osbourne and Jeremie Aliadiere are all nursing injuries in the wake of last weekend’s defeat at Sheffield United, and the trio will join an absentee list that also includes the likes of Rhys Williams, Emanuel Pogatetz and Andrew Taylor tomorrow.

Strachan had been hoping to plug the gaps with a number of new additions, but with Rangers refusing to lower their asking price for Kris Boyd and Coventry proving reluctant to part company with Leon Best, this week’s transfer dealings have produced only frustration.

Even trialists Nicky Weaver and Dominique Kivuvu have left Boro’s Rockliffe Park training ground without a contract offer, and Strachan admits the last few weeks have been as challenging as any he has experienced in football.

“You get periods like this sometimes,” said the Boro boss. “It’s a tough spell, and to make matters worse, all of our big players seem to have been injured at some stage.

“We’ve even added to our problems this week. I thought we’d have some players back this weekend, but instead it looks as though we’ll have more missing. We have nine first-team players injured and that’s obviously not good.

“We’ve had strange things happening left, right and centre.

Sean (St Ledger) was here and then disappeared somewhere else, and then we had Gary Caldwell here for 36 hours but still couldn’t sign him.

“That’s life though. Sometimes, things like this happen and you just have to take it.”

Robson’s hamstring injury is a major blow, as the former Celtic midfielder was the most impressive of Boro’s three debutants at Bramall Lane last weekend.

Having completed three signings in the run-up to the 1-0 defeat to Sheffield United, Strachan has targeted at least three more signings before the transfer window closes on February 1.

Weaver had looked like being one of those, a deal that would have sounded the death knell for Brad Jones’ Middlesbrough career, but the 30-yearold goalkeeper has been told to return to Dundee United as there will not be a contract offer from the Teessiders.

Similarly, Kivuvu has returned to Dutch club NEC Nijmegen after an unsuccessful two-day trial.

“Nicky and Dominique were here for a couple of days, but they’re not here now,” said Strachan. “That’s the end of it.

“We’re working hard on things all the time. We had some very young players on the bench last week, and that just proves the squad is a bit thin.

“We’ve been working on that for a while but, as has been shown recently, you can actually have people in the building and still lose them.

“The deal is only done when the paper is signed and, at this moment, that hasn’t happened.

We’re in a position where we haven’t got any more new players, although we’re working to bring some in.”

Similarly, Boro are actively working to prevent the more coveted members of their squad leaving this month.

Both Stoke and Blackburn have expressed an interest in Gary O’Neil – Strachan categorically denied that the former had made a formal bid earlier this week – while Wolves and Sunderland are keen on recruiting Adam Johnson.

Johnson’s contract is due to expire at the end of the season, but Strachan is confident the winger will not be allowed to leave this month, and highlights last week’s compensation agreement for Daniel Sturridge as a positive development in his battle to keep the England Under-21 international.

Chelsea were ordered to pay an initial fee of £3.5m after signing Sturridge as a free agent last summer, with additional payments of £500,000 due after ten, 20, 30 and 40 first-team appearances.

Johnson boasts much more Premier League experience than Sturridge, and Boro can expect an even higher figure if Johnson joins a top-flight club this summer.

“I think Adam will stay at the club in this window,” said Strachan. “I think he’ll still be here when the window shuts, one way or another. He likes playing for the club, he’s a good kid, and he would like to try to get us back to the top level.

“It’s not in our favour that his contract is up, but we can take solace from the fact that Manchester City got a half-decent deal for Sturridge.

There’s always that in the background.”

Mark Yeates left the Riverside this week to join Sheffield United, and Strachan has revealed it was the Irishman’s choice to leave Teesside rather than remaining to fight for his place.

“We said to Mark, ‘This is what’s going to happen. I’m maybe signing a couple of players next week or in two weeks time’,” said Strachan.

“‘You can either stay here or take the opportunity to move on. It’s entirely up to you’.

Mark decided that he wanted to go somewhere else.”