Middlesbrough remain in the fight for the play-offs after defeating Swansea City 2-0 at the Riverside Stadium over the weekend.
Michael Carrick‘s side are hitting form just at the right time, though, they still have a lot of work to do to surmount the six-point gap on Norwich City, who occupy sixth.
The Teeside outfit are fourth in the form table across the last 10 games, having won six, drawn two and lost two.
It’s been a remarkable late surge from Boro and they can’t afford to slip up in heading into the final run-in.
With a six-pointer against play-off rivals Hull City fast approaching, Carrick has issued a fitness update on two key players.
Michael Carrick issues fitness update ahead of clash v Hull City
Hayden Hackney has been sidelined through injury since mid-February but was back on the bench in the win against Swansea City.
So too was Rav van Den Berg, who hasn’t featured since Boro’s 1-0 away win at Birmingham City on March 12.
Though, neither came on as substitutes, with Carrick explaining: “Big boost to have them back. They weren’t ready to really play, to be honest, but we wanted to have them there so that they were back in and around the group.
“They haven’t had much training at all really. Hopefully they’ll come through the next few days all right and then we’ll make a call for Wednesday.”
Such news will come as a huge relief for supporters, as the duo have perhaps been Boro’s standout performers this term.
They’ll certainly be needed in the away clash at Hull in mid-week.
Middlesbrough need five wins from five
Admittedly, time is running out for Middlesbrough as they have just five games remaining of the season to close the gap on Norwich.
They’ll probably have to win all five to stand any chance of a top-six finish. That would move them to 76 points, which would be one better than last season’s tally.
Norwich have a pretty kind run-in on paper, too, so you’d expect them to pick up at least three more victories, moving them to 76 points, interestingly.
Middlesbrough are going to have to put together a phenomenal run but they’ll also be heavily reliant on the results of others.
If they can take three points from Wednesday’s clash, that’ll likely knock Hull out of the promotion race, so they must be at their very best.
