Middlesbrough manager Neil Warnock has revealed that Anfernee Dijksteel will miss the club's next two games through injury.
Dijksteel was withdrawn late on during Middlesbrough's 3-2 defeat at Huddersfield on Saturday - where he was beaten by Josh Koroma for the Terriers' winner - and was absent from 'Boro's 2-1 win over Swansea City at The Riverside Stadium on Wednesday night.
Speaking about Dijksteel's injury after that win at The Riverside Stadium, Warnock was quoted by The Hartlepool Mail as saying: "He just wasn’t right. I knew he wasn’t quite right at the end at Huddersfield.
“There’s no way the lad (Koroma) would have scored that third goal if he had been right. I should have pulled him off before that – I was going to but then Marvin (Johnson) took that quick free-kick that killed us.”
Providing an assessment on how long Dijksteel could be on the sidelines for, Warnock went on to add: "He’ll probably be ten days. It’s not a bad one thank goodness, but I wouldn’t have thought he’ll make the weekend at Stoke.
"We’ll see how he is. It’s not as bad as we thought. I was crossing my fingers because we don’t want another three-month job. Hopefully, we’ll have him back for Millwall.”
Middlesbrough are set to face Millwall at the Riverside on the 12th December, before which they face the prospect of back to back away games at Stoke and Preston.
So far this season, Dijksteel has emerged as a key figure for 'Boro, featuring in all 14 of their league games prior to Wednesday night's match, helping them to tenth place in the current Championship table, two points off the play-off places.
The Verdict
You feel there will be mixed feelings around this news on Dijksteel for Middlesbrough.
On the one hand, there will be a sense of disappointment that they look set to miss an influential player for two potentially tricky matches at Stoke and Preston, where his presence could certainly be useful.
However, as Warnock himself has noted here, there is also likely to be a great deal of relief that the injury suffered by Dijksteel is not going to keep him out for any longer than that, something which feels like it would have been a big blow to their prospects this season.