Middlesbrough: Injury at the latest before the play-off second leg in Coventry

Ramsey and Jonny Howson both traveled with the Boro side to Coventry for Sunday’s first leg, but the head coach refused to say whether either duo is back in training and in action for the second leg.

Club captain Howson is out of action after picking up an injury while warming up before losing to Rotherham in the penultimate game of the season, while Ramsey has not played for Boro since losing 5-1 to Norwich last month.

The 20-year-old recently returned to Aston Villa for treatment before being called up to England’s Under-20 squad for the upcoming World Cup last week, raising hopes he could still feature for Boro in the play-offs.

Those hopes seemed to be boosted when he was pictured at the CBS Arena, but Carrick explained that’s because he wanted his entire squad together on the trip, including those who weren’t able to play.

It remains unclear whether Ramsey – or Howson – will be available for a return on Wednesday, or a week on Saturday for the play-off final if Boro makes it by then.

“We took everyone to the (first leg) game because it was the whole team,” said Carrick.

“We all wanted to stick together. Everyone made a big contribution to this, so it was important that we made it happen.”

“Some are a little further away than others, we have to stick together.”

When asked if Ramsey is back at Boro or still at his home club, Carrick said: “He’s still a bit of both.”

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While Ramsey and Howson remain in deep doubt, Boro was bolstered by the return of Dael Fry and Marcus Forss on Sunday, the latter being introduced midway through the second half.

Carrick must now decide if Forss is ready to start on Wednesday.

He said, “We’ll see. It was pretty light today. The boys walked a bit after the game yesterday. It was light today.”

“We just have to judge that. There’s a balance in the squad, some guys have played every game, some guys haven’t played much but came back and some guys are coming back from injury so we’ll just have to find out who’s in good shape by tomorrow is.