Middlesbrough hope for injury boost at Derby as Neil Warnock explains Nathaniel Mendez-Laing situation

The Middlesbrough defender missed his side’s 4-1 defeat by Brentford at the Riverside after suffering the setback at Norwich.

When asked about Fry after the Brentford game, Warnock said: “Dael isn’t far away. He is quite confident he’ll be back next week.

“I’m no expert but there’s bits of blood around it, but nothing damaging in the actual muscle.

“So he should have a good chance for next week I hope."

Fry’s absence meant Anfernee Dijksteel returned to the side in defence, following an operation to remove an abscess.

Warnock is also hopeful midfielder Marcus Tavernier will be fit again soon following a knee injury.

“I’ve got to give Dijksteel a pat on the back today," added Warnock.

“If you’d have seen his operation you wouldn’t have thought he’d play today. And I thought he did ever so well.

"Tav’s not far away either. He is probably another week after Dael.”

Boro also started new signing Nathaniel Mendez-Laing on the bench, yet the winger hasn’t played a competitive match since July.

“We put Mendez on the bench today but he was never going to come on,” said Warnock. “We hadn’t got another sub so I said put him on and we’ll let him have a look.

“He’ll train all next week and we might get 20/30 minutes out of him at Derby.

“He looks useful in the (training) games, it’s just that he hasn’t done that much. I don’t want him to pull a hamstring straight away so we’ll see how that goes.”

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