MIDDLESBROUGH will be without Ben Doak for a number of weeks after the Liverpool loanee suffered a thigh injury in training last week.
Downbeat boss Michael Carrick confirmed the injury blow after the home defeat to Sunderland on Monday night, which left Boro outside the Championship's top six and trailing the Black Cats by 14 points.
Carrick said the Boro dressing room was left "bitterly disappointed" after the derby defeat, with a 3-2 win for Sunderland sealed by a Ryan Giles own-goal late on.
It's now just two wins in nine for Boro, and Carrick must find a way get his side back on track without star man Doak, who will miss the coming spell of games.
"He just felt his thigh during the week in training," said Carrick.
"We'll see how it is. It won't be a few days, it will be longer. Probably weeks, not ages but yeah, it won't be days."
Doak's absence is a hammer blow for Boro ahead of a crucial spell of games. Carrick's side head for Sheffield United a week on Wednesday before games against rivals Watford and Bristol City.
Boro led early on against Sunderland thanks to Delano Burgzorg before the Black Cats turned the game on its head after goals from Dan Neil and Wilson Isidor. Hackney levelled for Boro before Giles' late own-goal.
Carrick said: "To lose it like that is a tough one.
"It's a horrible way to lose a game, especially a game of this significance. To lose the game, to concede the goals, a deflection and an own-goal is difficult but we have to accept it.
"We started the game ever so well, went ahead and looked like we could add to it. We dealt with the two-goal swing and came back into the game and it just drifted a bit in the second half when we didn't do enough in the game.
"To lose it like that is a tough one to take."
He added: "Football is ups and downs through a game and there will be times when you have the momentum and the upper hand and you have to make the most of that. You can't always expect to score more than two goals at home, to be honest. But the two goals we conceded, a deflection and an own-goal, you can pick the bones out of it but it's harsh, and we find ourselves here with nothing.
"It's a bitterly disappointed dressing room."
