Middlesbrough sweating on key men as they prepare for big Hull City clash

Middlesbrough head coach Michael Carrick admits he faces a nervous 48 hours ahead of Saturday's clash with managerless Hull City with a flurry of players unwell.

Boro's three-game winning run came to a shuddering halt on Wednesday night as Blackburn Rovers bagged a 1-0 Riverside Stadium win and kept Carrick's free-scoring side at bay.

The Teesside outfit had netted 15 goals in their three wins, one goal shy of City's entire tally for the season so far but was without Finn Azaz and Delano Burgzorg for the game along with goalkeeper Seny Dieng, and then lost Riley McGree in the first half.

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“They (Azaz and Burgzorg) were out with illness,” the Riverside head coach told reporters. “There’s no getting away from the fact that we had some pretty good players on the sidelines. Some injured, some ill.

“We’ve got a good squad and good players, so it’s not an excuse. It was just one of those games where we weren’t quite at our best. You never know, we might have found a winner of our own as the game went on if we didn’t have a goal like that go against us. I don’t want to dwell too much on the absentees. It is what it is and that’s why we’ve got the squad that we’ve got.”

“We’ve got good players missing, but we’ve got good players who played (against Blackburn), so I don’t want to make a big deal out of it,” said the Boro boss. “At this stage, I’ve no idea who will be back fit and well for Saturday. We’ll give them time and have to wait and see.”

“Riley got a dead leg. We’re not sure at this stage how that will look. He tried to carry on but couldn’t manage it. We’ll have to wait and see how he is for Saturday. There’s not much time between the two games.”