"It’s a bit ridiculous" - Frustrating Middlesbrough FC issue raised that may affect promotion hopes | OneFootball

FLW's Middlesbrough fan pundit has identified one major weakness impacting the club right now

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Middlesbrough’s promotion challenge will come to a head in the next several weeks as we approach the end of the campaign.

Michael Carrick’s side are in the mix for a play-off place, but their mixed form in recent weeks has seen them lose out to the likes of Coventry City and Bristol City.

Injuries have not helped the Teesside outfit, with the senior team currently without any available centre-backs.

Carrick will be hoping to guide Middlesbrough to a second top six finish in three years, having led the team to a fourth place finish in 2023.

Injury weakness claim made

When asked what the club’s biggest weakness is right now, FLW’s Middlesbrough fan pundit Jasper Hudson mentioned the current injury issues.

He’s unsure why it is such a big issue for the team, and that it has hurt their chances at promotion to the Premier League.

“Our biggest injury, and it has been last season and this, is just injuries,” Hudson told Football League World.

“It’s hard to really pin down why, but we’ve had so many injuries last year, we’ve had 14 players out injured at one time.

“This year it’s not been as bad, but currently we have three centre-backs out injured, leaving no senior options in that position.

“That’s really dented our chances, and it’s hard to really explain why we’re getting so many injuries, I don’t know if it’s to do with training or something.

“It’s just really bad.”

Long-term injury problems highlighted

Along with the quantity of injuries, Hudson has also highlighted how long some players have been out for as another issue that needs to be looked at.

“We signed [Alex] Bangura and he was out pretty much for a year-and-a-half now, Tommy Smith has been out for a year-and-a-half, Darragh Lenihan has been out for nearly two years now, it’s a bit ridiculous when you look at the injuries we’ve had,” he continued.

“The amount, how long they’ve been, [Dael] Fry’s just come back from injury and got injured again.

“I think that’s something we need to look at, whether it’s the facilities, the training, whatever it is that’s the reason we seem to be getting more injuries than other teams.

“I think the only way you can fix it is trying to find the issue, whether it be the facilities or it could even be down to the players or staff, but for some reason we are more injury prone and that’s cost us any chance of battling for promotion with a fully fit squad for the last two seasons.”

Middlesbrough are currently eighth in the Championship table, three points outside the play-off places.

Injuries proving costly for Middlesbrough

To a certain extent, bad injuries are just bad luck for teams and there’s not a massive amount that can be done about it.

But there are ways to limit the risks of injuries, which is what Boro need to be looking at over the summer.

There are many possible factors, all highlighted by Hudson, and it’s something the club have to get on top of for next season.

It has cost them in the promotion race this year and last, and they cannot afford for that to become a persistent problem long-term.