MICHAEL Carrick had no intentions of using Jonny Howson from the bench on Saturday, admitting Middlesbrough's captain is still not quite ready for Championship action.

But Boro's head coach felt his players benefited from just having Howson back in the dressing room on a matchday.

Howson was back on the bench for the win over Derby, his first involvement since suffering an injury in the draw at Plymouth a few days before Christmas.

But Carrick felt it was still too early for Howson to be back among the action, so when Luke Ayling was forced off injured in the second half the head coach wasn't at all tempted to turn to his captain.

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"To be honest he was never going on, he's not ready for that," said Carrick.

"But we wanted to get him back. He was double keen to get back around the group. We just felt it was a good time to do that.

"He's not really up to speed in terms of being ready to play but it was a big thing to have him around the group and the boys benefited from that."

Howson is a hugely important figure behind the scenes and in the dressing room at Boro and Carrick is delighted to have his captain back in contention.

"It's his presence," said Carrick.

"He's a big part of us and has a big influence on the boys. It was more for that than anything else, it's nice to have him back."