Championship play-off blow for Middlesbrough regarding star Liverpool loanee plus further setback for ex-Leeds United defender

The Scottish winger was outstanding in the first half of the campaign for Boro, whose form dropped off badly after he suffered a training ground injury ahead of the derby with Sunderland on February 3.

Boss Carrick said: "Ben is back at Liverpool doing a bit of rehab now. That’s normal when it gets to this stage - we’ve had that before with players we’ve sent out on loan.

"He’s back with Liverpool and we’ll just have to see how that goes and how long he’s going to be out for. We’ll have to wait and see.

"It all happened quite recently. He was doing his rehab and then it came about. It’s something that’s unfortunate - both for us and Ben. But, it’s part of the game and he will come back stronger.

"We’ll have to wait and see (if he plays again this season). It’s hard to say either way at this stage, to be honest. He’s back with Liverpool and they are going to look after his rehab initially and see how that goes. We’ll just see how it progresses from there.

"It’s like all players. It’s never nice when you’re out injured. You want to be back; you want to be playing. But it is part of the game and something you’ve got to manage and deal with at various stages of your career.

"Rehab is rehab, he’ll go through that and hopefully be back on the pitch as soon as possible.”

Riley McGree remains out of action, while Geoege Edmundson (ankle), ex-Leeds defender Luke Ayling (ankle) and Rav van den Berg (Knee) will miss this weekend’s game at Swansea.

On van den Berg’s issue, Carrick added: "We're still waiting to see. They thought it might be a lot worse at one stage. We're still waiting to see where he's at.

"It might not be very long at all but it might be a number of weeks. We're still trying to work things out at the moment.

"It's something we have to deal with. We had to deal with George going off at Stoke then Luke came in, did ever so well but then went off.

"Then Neto (Borges) played and did well. The two injuries to George and Luke from nothing. He just fell on top of Luke, it's really innocuous and unfortunate. We'll have to see how it settles down for Luke.

"George is still fighting his way back, so it is what it is.”