Fresh injury woe for Middlesbrough loan striker Josh Coburn with timeframe set on return

Josh Coburn has suffered fresh injury woe during his loan spell at Millwall, with the Middlesbrough striker expected to miss around two months with a broken metatarsal.

The Richmond centre-forward is spending the season on loan where it was hoped he could go and play regular Championship football and impress coaching staff back on Teesside. A big factor behind the loan was Coburn’s injuries last season and the need to get his body more robust for regular senior football at this level.

However, despite impressing at the Den when he has played, this is the 21-year-old’s second major injury during the loan spell. It will come as a huge blow to the youngster, who has shown great promise since emerging in the Boro team under Neil Warnock aged just 18.

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Injured in just his second game for Millwall after an excellent goalscoring debut, Coburn returned to action at the start of last month and netted his second for the in-form Lions in a draw at Stoke City. However, in his third start start since his return, Coburn was withdrawn at half-time of Saturday’s draw at Oxford - leaving the Kassam Stadium in a protective boot.

In an exclusive update to South London Press, manager Neil Harris said: “Josh is ruled out for the foreseeable future – after Christmas. He had got a broken metatarsal in his foot. He left the ground in a boot at the weekend, you know there is damage when that happens.

“It is probably a similar timeframe as Jake Cooper, you’re looking at probably both being eight weeks until they return. He is going to miss a large chunk of an important period of football.

“Josh, when he is on the pitch, showed in the first half his qualities as a Millwall number nine and why, his importance to the squad and why we were so desperate to bring him in, as a profile as a striker at the football club.It is a big loss but we have coped very well without him in the past and we will have to do in the future.”

Millwall visit the Riverside a week on Saturday and are currently on a nine-game unbeaten run. Coburn would have been ineligible to play against parent club Boro anyway, but the Teessider now faces another extended spell on the sidelines in a blow to his prospects of impressing chiefs back on Teesside this season.