Defender Hines could miss start of season

The versatile Boro defender will go under the knife to rectify a long-standing knee problem that has restricted his appearances this new year, with Riverside boss Mowbray expecting him to be out for up to four months due to a micro-fracture of his knee.

Mowbray, whose side entertain Charlton in their final game of the season on Teesside today, said: “Seb Hines will be going in for an operation over the next few days. He might miss the start of the season. It is his knee, he’s had a few issues with that. He saw a specialist earlier this week and he decided that he needed to go in and tidy it up. The diagnosis is that he might miss the start of the season. It is not what we wanted to hear and not what Seb wanted to hear.”

Mowbray is the first to admit that a 2012-13 season which promised so much has ultimately been a failure following a truly dreadful run of form since the turn of the year which has seen Boro drop out of the promotion race after losing 14 of their last 19 matches. Latterly, some supporters have been critical of his decision to use some young players including Adam Reach and Luke Williams sparingly – and not hand more opportunities to them with their competitive season having effectively been dead for a few weeks.

But Mowbray has defended his team make-up, saying: “Some people have been talking about bringing in young players but our team has young players in it already. Adam Reach has played 27 games, Jason Steele has played all this season and is only 21, Richie Smallwood and Andy Halliday have all been playing.”