Peterborough United v Middlesbrough: Relief for Chris Wilder as trio return unharmed

The likes of Flo Balogun, Paddy McNair and Andraz Sporar came through unscathed and in terms of the former, the fillip of three goals in two games on England Under-21 duty could well be timely from a Boro perspective.

Despite some bright performances, Arsenal loanee Balogun has struck just twice for the Teessiders thus far, although both arrived relatively recently.

Two goals at the start of this week in Albania, allied to a strike at the end of last week against Andorra means that Balogun has received the perfect confidence boost for the run-in.

Wilder said: “Sporar has come back okay and Flo has had a great camp with England and scored a few goals and been successful.

“I had a message from Lee Carsley saying how impressed he was with Flo and what a good camp it was for him personally.”

Just as important for Wilder was the fact that McNair, who went off with a slight foot problem in the recent FA Cup loss to Chelsea, did not aggravate the injury when playing for Northern Ireland on Tuesday.

Wilder added: “Paddy went away and missed the first game, which was a sensible decision.

“But I am not surprised Paddy made himself available for the second game as his love and passion is there to be seen and it also is for his football club as well.

“It is always a little bit: ‘please come back healthy, fit and with no injuries’ and thankfully, we are in that place and it is a good place to be in.”

Boro, backed by 3,700 fans, may be favourites today, but will be acutely aware they face a Posh side fighting for their lives and who stunned QPR last time out.

Wilder added: “I’m not surprised they’ve picked a couple of results up. It’s a great club. I’ve known Darren Ferguson for a long time who did wonderful things there.

“Grant (McCann) has got a huge connection to Peterborough as well. I think he was incredibly unlucky to lose his job (at Hull).”