GEORGE Edmundson looks set to miss at least the next three Middlesbrough games, with the defender facing a "a number of weeks" on the sidelines with an ankle injury.
But Michael Carrick says Middlesbrough are still investigating Rav van den Berg's knee injury and it remains unclear at this stage when the Dutchman will be ready to return.
To add to Middlesbrough's defensive worries, Luke Ayling was forced off in the second half of Saturday's win over Derby with an ankle injury that looked similar to the one Edmundson suffered at Stoke in midweek.
Ayling will now be closely assessed in the coming days.
But if next week's trip to Swansea comes to soon for both van den Berg and Ayling, Carrick will be comfortable playing Neto Borges at centre-back. The Brazilian was moved inside against Derby after Ayling was withdrawn and played well.
Still, the news on Edmundson is a major blow for Boro and Dael Fry is their only fit and available natural centre-back.
“George is going to have a few weeks out," said Carrick.
"We’re waiting to see where Rav is out, still needing to do a bit of investigating on that one.
"George is a number of weeks though. We’re hoping around three weeks more than anything else, but we’ll see how he is.
"We have a group of games before the international break, so we’ll see if we can get him back before that."
RECOMMENDED READING
Boro have three games, against Swansea, QPR and Luton, in the next fortnight before the international break. They return to action on March 29 at home to Oxford.
Ayling replaced Edmundson in the side against Derby and was playing well before his injury setback.
Carrick said: “We’ll have to see on Luke. He’s jarred his ankle, similar to George’s in midweek actually. Just an innocuous kind of movement, landing funny. I’m not sure right now how he is and we’ll have to deal with that."
Carrick praised Borges for how the in-form full-back quickly adjusted to his switch.
He said: “Neto did well when he moved across. He’s got the experience and got that in his character where he’s happy to take on a challenge. He’s not fazed by it.
"He played alongside Dael today who I thought was particularly good, so I thought we dealt with it well in the end.
"It’s not easy when you have to shuffle things around and I thought Luke had been doing ever so well before we had to shuffle things around. That’s the ups and downs of the season, really. You’ve just got to deal with it as best you can and make the best of it.”
Boro moved to within two points of the top six thanks to their hard-fought victory over Derby, with Finn Azaz hitting the winner 10 minutes from time.
Carrick said: "It's a good feeling when you do it like that. It's probably the type of game we haven't capitalised on enough during the season.
"I'm delighted we found a way. I thought we played well in the first half and created some good chances and played some good football. The second half was a bit sticky but we kept going and it was a big goal for us.
"I thought we deserved to win the game but you still have to find a way. I'm particularly pleased with the boys coming off the bench and making an impact and finishing the game off.
"We need to use that, to finish the game strong is something we've talked about and we definitely did that today."
Derby set out to frustrate Boro and looked set to leave with a point. Marcus Forss went close in the first half and Azaz hit the post. But in the second half, Boro lost their way and looked to be out of ideas until Azaz fired home after Conway's shot was charged down.
Carrick said: "Credit to Derby, they made it difficult and closed a lot of the spaces off, but we still found opportunities in the first half.
"There was an element of being patient but not wanting to go slow and wait for something to happen.
"We had to trust we'd get there if we kept doing the right things. We probably didn't play as well in the second half but that's the way it is sometimes and we found a way.
"In some ways it's a better feeling to win 1-0."
