Middlesbrough FC news: Fresh report regarding Burnley's Ben Gibson plus Hayden Coulson's Birmingham absence explained

Ben Gibson has made just one Premier League appearance since moving to Burnley.

The 27-year-old centre-back has barely featured for the Clarets since his move to Turf Moor from Boro in the summer of 2018.

Gibson has been linked with a shock return to the Riverside on loan and, according to BBC Sport, Burnley have rejected multiple offers from a number of Championship clubs.

Boro are looking to sign at least one more centre-back before the end of the January transfer window, and when asked if it could be Gibson, head coach Jonathan Woodgate said: “Could it be Ben Gibson? Who knows? It could be anyone.

“Have I spoken to Ben about signing? Not at the minute. Ben Gibson’s a good player, but there’s an awful lot of good players in the league. Would he be open to coming back? I’m not sure on that one. But he’s a Boro lad isn’t he?”

Boro have coped with several injury setbacks in recent weeks, and Woodgate is hopeful first-team trio Britt Assombalonga, Ryan Shotton and George Friend will all return soon.

Full-back Hayden Coulson also missed Tuesday’s 1-1 draw with Birmingham yet Woodgate says the defender should be available for next week’s meeting with Blackburn.

“He’s ill,” said Woodgate when asked about Coulson’s absence. “He was ill after the Fulham game, he’ll be back next week but he’s been on antibiotics. He’s not too well at the minute.”

Finally, Birmingham have announced hey will speak to refereeing body PGMOB (The Professional Game Match Officials Board) following Tuesday’s draw at the Riverside.

Blues boss Pep Clotet was unhappy that Lukas Jutkiewitz’s late goal was disallowed after Middlesbrough’s Marcus Tavernier suffered a head injury.

“It’s a clear counter attack, we won the ball very fairly and broke on them,” said Clotet after the game.

The following day, Birmingham’s official Twitter account posted a video of the goal with the words: “Talk about a tough one to take...

“The Club will be raising a number of issues from this season at a meeting we have scheduled with the refereeing body, the PGMOL.

“We owe it to our supporters, our staff, our players.”