Frustrating new update emerges on Ben Doak situation at Middlesbrough | OneFootball

The Liverpool loanee has been out since January with a thigh injury.

Michael Carrick has admitted that it is increasingly unlikely that Ben Doak will play for Middlesbrough again this season.

We're closing in on three months since we last saw the Liverpool loanee in action for Boro. He suffered a thigh injury in January which eventually required surgery in March; Doak is still yet to even return to Teesside for training.

He has been rehabilitating with his parent club, Liverpool, and time is running out for the 19-year-old to get fit in time to play one or two last games for the club before his loan expires.

Michael Carrick provides key Ben Doak return report

The Boro manager hasn't completely given up hope of seeing the Scotsman play for the club again before the campaign concludes in a few weeks' time, but he has admitted that the chances of that happening are getting slimmer and slimmer.

On whether it's time to call it quits for Doak's chances of returning this season, Carrick said, via the Northern Echo: "It will get to that stage but we're not writing anything off yet as you probably understand. But at this stage of the season it's pretty late, so it's obviously not looking likely anytime soon."

If Middlesbrough were to finish inside the top six and secure a spot in the play-offs then that would give Doak a slightly greater chance of playing football again before this summer, although it would be over three months since his last outing so his game time would likely be minimal.

Boro have missed Doak while he has been out injured. At the time of his last appearance, versus Preston North End, in which he provided an assist, the Teessiders were sixth in the league, two points above the chasing pack. They are now eighth, three points off of Coventry City in the final play-off spot. Boro only won five games in that time.

Middlesbrough have sorely missed Ben Doak

If you were going to point at either end of the pitch as the reason why Boro have dropped off the pace, it'd be their defence. It's been their weak point all season long, but, in fairness, Carrick's attack hasn't exactly lived up to expectations of late.

The side that once scored 15 goals in three games this season, with Doak in the squad, have only scored 14 goals since the Liverpool loanee went down.

There's no guarantee that the teenager would have been able to resolve these issues singlehandedly, but you could tell when he was playing for them that he was a different breed.

He had traits that others didn't; his pace and directness was frightening oppositions. He was attracting so much of their attention that it would leave more space for his fellow forwards.

We'll never know how things would have played out if Doak hadn't been injured, but could anybody genuinely argue that Boro wouldn't have been any better off with him in the side? That'd be a hard case to put forward.