Rav van den Berg and Hayden Hackney returned to the Middlesbrough bench for Swansea City’s triumph.
Michael Carrick has explained why he included Rav van den Berg and Hayden Hackney on Middlesbrough’s bench, despite the fact that neither played in the win over Swansea.
The duo, both now established as vital Boro players, returned to training this week, albeit with limited practices prior to Saturday’s 2-0 triumph at the Riverside. It left neither prepared to come off the bench, despite being nominated to it.
With Hackney out since damaging his knee at Preston North End on February 14 and Van den Berg since injured his knee late on at Birmingham City last month, Carrick stressed before the game that he needed to find the proper balance in judging when they’d be ready to return.
Explaining why they were back in the squad for the Swansea game despite being unlikely to play, the Boro manager said: “Big boost to having them back. To be honest, they weren’t quite ready to play, but we wanted them to be present so they could reintegrate into the group.
“They’ve received very little training. Hopefully, they’ll make it through the next three days, and then we’ll make a call for Wednesday [when Boro go to Hull City].
As it turned out, neither Van den Berg nor Hackney were required against Swansea, as Emmanuel Latte Lath’s double secured the three points and kept Boro in contention for sixth place. With five major games to go – in which Boro appear to need to be nearly faultless in order to overcome a six-point lead; having key players like Van den Berg and Hackney could be crucial.
