Middlesbrough will be without Ashley Fletcher, Marcus Browne and Sam Morsy once again this week as they continue to recover from injury. 

Neil Warnock's side are enduring a gruelling Championship schedule at this moment in time, with Saturday's meeting with Norwich City needing to be quickly forgotten.

Boro are in action against Derby County this week, but Warnock is going to be unable to call on three senior players who continue to recover from their respective hamstring injuries.

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Fletcher has missed a good chunk of games with his issue, which is the same for Morsy, who is champing at the bit to return, according to the Boro boss.

For Browne, he's picked up a hamstring problem over the international break and is seemingly facing a couple of weeks out.

Warnock revealed to Boro's official website that neither of the trio were likely to come back into the squad against Derby this week: "We have one or two little niggles but we have another 24 hours before the game so we’ll see how the lads are. I don’t expect anyone new to come into the squad.”

Boro's defeat to Norwich on Saturday was just their second of the season and left them eighth in the Championship table, four points adrift of the play-off places.

The Verdict 

Fletcher and Browne's absence is outweighed by Boro's other attacking options, which, for me, are still pretty strong.

The player you've got to imagine Warnock will want back is Morsy.

He's a midfielder with some real star quality in the Championship and he's also very Warnock.

When he returns, I expect Middlesbrough to kick on even further this season.

Thoughts? Let us know!