Middlesbrough injury latest pre-Sunderland with four ruled out and two doubts

Sunderland’s upcoming opponents Middlesbrough have a few injury problems to deal with ahead of their trip to the Stadium of Light on Saturday. Michael Carrick’s side drew 1-1 at home to Preston North End last time out.

They saw Australia midfielder Riley McGree return to the bench last weekend following his spell on the sidelines which was a boost. He is now in contention to start against the Black Cats and they have a decision to make regarding whether to give him the nod from the off.

Sunderland’s rivals have seen attacker Marcus Forss return to training for the first time in six months. The ex-Brentford and Hull City man had a hamstring issue but won’t be rushed back by Michael Carrick as he waits for the right opportunity to give him some minutes.

They will have to make checks on Rav van den Berg and Jonny Howson. It is up in the air whether the pair will be able to face Regis Le Bris’ men and they will have to be assessed over the coming days.

Meanwhile, Darragh Lenihan, Dael Fry and Tommy Smith remain more long-term absentees for Boro. They haven’t featured in this campaign at all. They signed Scotland international winger Ben Doak on loan from Liverpool on deadline day and he came off the bench against Preston to make his debut. He will now be eager to make a name for himself in Carrick’s starting XI.

Following their draw with the Lilywhites, Carrick said: “I’m frustrated, we should have won the game. We were in a great position where we should then probably go on and win the game. We created enough opportunities again to score more and didn’t give a lot away again. So there were a lot of good things in there that over time we feel will benefit us.

"But again, and I’ve just said this to the boys in there, it’s killing teams off when we’ve got them [that we have to be better]. We’re 1-0 up, we’ve got them on the back foot, we’ve got to take that next step and push for the next goal and be really positive. "The game drifted a little bit for five or 10 minutes and they grab their goal.

"The game completely changes second half when they’ve got something to hold on to. Towards the end, when teams are there going man for man and are trying to stop us, we’ve got to find ways of breaking them down. I thought largely we tried - there was a lot of good attitude and application, but we just couldn’t find that killer pass at the end."

Middlesbrough have eight points on the board so far this term and are sat in 10th in the table. They missed out on the play-offs in the last campaign.

Sunderland won their first four fixtures and had maximum points at the end of August. They lost 3-2 away at Plymouth Argyle last Saturday though and will want to bounce back.