Middlesbrough injury latest as Neil Warnock reveals Anfernee Dijksteel update

Boro are targeting their fourth-straight Championship victory this weekend but Warnock remains shy of several players due to an injury crisis, particularly in defence.

There was brighter news on Dijksteel, though.

The Dutch defender has not featured since he was forced off against Blackpool at the Riverside in mid-September.

He has has since been joined in the treatment room by the likes of Grant Hall, Dael Fry and Marc Bola at the Riverside.

Speaking ahead of the visit of Birmingham (3pm) on Saturday, Warnock said: "Dijksteel is the nearest one to coming back.

"He's going to do a bit more today while we're out training, and I did catch him smiling the other day in the corridor, when I asked if he missed coming for dinner with me and Sharon!

"The others I don't think will be with us until the other side of the international break, and that's if we're lucky.

"Then there's the long term ones like Darnell Fisher and Sammy Ameobi, You can't put a date on them, but I don't think it will be before Christmas."

Boro hope to secure a fourth straight Championship win on Saturday afternoon.

Warnock added: “Sometimes it goes that way in management, you get given your lot and you have to shuffle the pack," Warnock said.

"And the lads have responded really well, I can't fault them.

"But it will be nice to have the others back, I'd like that problem.”

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