TONY MOWBRAY believes he did everything he could to keep Andrew Taylor at Middlesbrough after the versatile defender decided his future lies with Championship rivals Cardiff City.

Taylor, absent when the Boro squad returned to pre-season training yesterday, is due to head to South Wales on Monday for a medical and become Malky Mackay’s first signing.

The 24-year-old had talks with Mowbray on Wednesday night and was given a couple of days to sort out his future, with contract offers tabled from Bristol City and Cardiff.

But a move to ambitious Cardiff, where he will play in his preferred left-back role and team up with Mackay again, has proven decisive.

Speaking after training yesterday, Mowbray said: “The best thing to say is that I am pretty sure it will be resolved, one way or the other. It has been exhausted and it will be sorted. He will be with us by Monday or he will be standing in Cardiff or Bristol holding up his new shirt.

“We have worked very hard to do it. Lots of things need to fall in place for it to happen. I can see both sides. I tried to paint the picture of where I see this club going.

“We want to be back in the Premier League, which is where most of his career has been. That is where we hope to be and we told him what we hope his part would be in our plan. He has choices to make.”

Taylor is officially a free agent today after his contract expired, which has brought an end to a Boro career that started more than a decade ago as a schoolboy.

But last season’s loan spell at Watford, where he played under Mackay after Gordon Strachan decided he did not want him around, has ultimately paved the way for his departure.

Taylor was not the only player missing yesterday.

But the non-appearances of Barry Robson, Jason Steele, Kris Boyd, Didier Digard, Rhys Williams and Julio Arca, who is also a free agent, were not as surprising as the sight of Kevin Thomson hobbling around on crutches.

The midfielder could miss the start of the season after suffering an ankle injury. The Scotland international’s first season on Teesside was hampered after breaking his leg.

“Kevin is hugely disappointed and so am I,” said Mowbray, keen to build next season’s midfield around his former Hibernian captain.

“Kevin was a huge player for us at the back end of last season. Let’s hope it is a very short injury and he can put it behind him.

“He came off the treadmill, stumbled and damaged his ankle a little bit. I feel for him and I am disappointed for us if he is going to miss the start of the season and we don’t know if he will yet. I was anticipating him being a big, big player for us and he still will be.”

While Thomson’s injury was the biggest frustration on the players’ first day back at work, Mowbray was keen to stress there was nothing sinister in the absence of others.

The loan deal that saw Digard spend a season at Nice did not officially end until last night and the Frenchman is expected to rejoin his Boro team-mates this morning.

Nice are continuing to hold talks with Boro and the midfielder’s representatives but Mowbray will be more than happy to have him in the Championship if a deal does not materialise.

“I look forward to seeing him because he is a talented footballer,” he said. “If there is no deal struck I see him playing an important part.”

Boyd, who can leave if a suitable offer arrives, was given a few days off on compassionate leave because of a family bereavement.

Robson, Williams and Steele have been given a further two weeks off because of their international commitments during the summer. 

*  Boro are set to confirm that PSV Eindhoven will play at the Riverside Stadium on Friday, July 29 (7.30pm) – their final warm up game for the new campaign.