Michael Carrick has been handed a major boost on the fitness front with three key senior players now back in training for the club.
Middlesbrough are gearing up for another season in the Championship under the guidance of Michael Carrick.
The former Manchester United boss has enjoyed an impressive first two seasons on Teesside, reaching the play-off semi-finals and finishing four points off the top six last time out.
Boro were expected to push for promotion in the 2023/24 season after a fourth-place finish in 2022/23 but those hopes were dashed for a few reasons.
Firstly, the North East outfit lost several key players during the summer of 2023, including Ryan Giles, Cameron Archer, Aaron Ramsey, and Chuba Akpom.
The latter of that quartet moved to Ajax, while the remainder of the trio returned to their parent clubs following loan spells.
Another reason for Boro’s struggles during the previous campaign was injury issues, with a number of key names missing large parts of the season.
Dael Fry, Hayden Hackney and Josh Coburn return to Middlesbrough training
As Middlesbrough begin their pre-season preparation, however, Carrick has been handed several injury boosts.
Dael Fry, Boro’s star centre-back, missed the final 16 games of the 2023/24 Championship campaign due to injury.
Elsewhere, key midfielder Hayden Hackney was sidelined for 14 of the club’s last 15 league games, and Josh Coburn did not feature in the North East outfit’s final 15 matches of the campaign.
Now though, as per Teesside Live, Fry, Hackney and Coburn all took part in full first-team training this week when Carrick welcomed his players back from their summer break.
Fry, Hackney and Coburn will be crucial to Middlesbrough promotion push
Given their injury issues and squad overhaul last year, Boro did well to finish just outside of the top six in 2023/24.
This time around, if Middlesbrough can keep the aforementioned trio fit, they should be firmly in the promotion picture come May.
Since the departure of Ben Gibson, Fry has been Boro’s most consistent centre-back, and losing him for nearly a third of last season was a major blow.
As for Hackney, his displays earlier in the campaign, which included scoring the only goal in a 1-0 win over Chelsea in the League Cup, highlighted how important he is to Carrick’s system.
Coburn, meanwhile, will be needed in the forthcoming campaign as a backup to 16-goal star, Emmanuel Latte Lath.
Despite his injury woes in the second half of 2022/23, the striker was still able to score five league goals.
If Coburn can stay fit this term, a double-figure season could be on the cards for the 21-year-old, which would be massive for Middlesbrough’s promotion chances.