Middlesbrough waiting on Neto Borges decision as Michael Carrick is asked about George McCormick

Neto Borges remains a doubt for Middlesbrough's clash with Luton Town on Saturday, with the left-back suffering from illness and a decision being left until late in the day on if he will play or not.

Boro are going to give the Brazilian left-back as long as possible before making a decision on whether he can play on Saturday at the Riverside as he bids to recover from an illness that has afflicted him in Boro's last two games. But he will be a doubt after coming off early in the second half of Tuesday's victory over QPR, having played through the issue on Saturday against Coventry.

Asked for an update in Thursday's press conference to preview the Hatters' visit, Michael Carrick said: “We’re still looking at him. He was ill over the weekend, and it carried over to Tuesday. We’ll just have to see how he is over the next day or two going into the game. Other than that, everyone came through fine."

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What Carrick chooses to do should Borges not make it, remains to be seen. GeorgeMcCormick, 19, has impressed this season and has made two senior appearances, including a start in the second round of the Carabao Cup. However, Luton will be a side who will play a lot of long balls and look to get crosses into the Boro box, making it a difficult game for a young full-back.

"We’ll have to see what we’d do if Neto doesn’t make it," Carrick said. "We’ve got Luke [Ayling] who played really well when he went over to left-back the other night, and George [McCormick] is an option as well. It is something we will need to think about."

The game kicks-off at 12.30 pm on Saturday after being selected by Sky for live TV broadcast. It makes for an interesting and unique turnaround for Boro, who didn't arrive back on Teesside until around 4 am on Wednesday after driving back from West London after Tuesday evening's win. They did get more rest than Luton, however, who beat Cardiff City on Wednesday evening.

With no complaints or drama regarding that, Carrick said: “Tuesday into Saturday is fine. There’s loads of time in between that. There’s an element ove the course of the week and assessing the boys and how many minutes they’ve played and stuff like that. But in terms of Tuesday into Saturday, there’s plenty of time to recover."

Boro will go into the Luton game hoping to win consecutive league games for just the second time this season. It follows the emphatic 4-1 victory at QPR, in which Boro finally found a clinical edge to put the R's to the sword and return to Teesside with all three points.

“We’ve played like that pretty much every week," Carrick insisted, when asked if anything had changed to orchestrate such a result. "Goals can sometimes change the perception, but honestly, nothing changed. You win games, lose games and draw games, and you can’t let the confidence levels be altered by a goal here or there. .

"I’ve been largely really pleased with the boys and how we’ve played, and that hasn’t changed massively because of the way we won the game. We’ve probably played better at times and not got the result. That’s football.”