BORO will give Egyptian striker Mido another month to get himself back on track.
Gareth Southgate is determined not to rush the 24-year-old, despite him being unable to reach full fitness as hoped last month.
Boro are putting Mido through a rigorous training schedule at Rockliffe Park and the striker is getting stuck into the task.
Assistant boss Malcolm Crosby told the Evening Gazette today: “Mido is working very hard in training and I have seen a big improvement in him over the last couple of weeks.
“If he continues to work at this rate then it might be another few weeks.
“He is going to be in decent shape at the end of it and hopefully he will be pushing for his place in no more than a month or so.
“We need all our players fit. We need competition for places.”
Boro were dismayed that Mido put on weight as he battled to recover from an abdominal injury.
He has not started a game since October and his absence has left Boro without a recognised centre-forward for four months.
The deadline-day signing of Afonso Alves had gone a long way to solving the problem, though the Brazilian is still short of fitness himself.
Ironically Alves will achieve full fitness around the same time as Mido, while Tuncay will also be back from a hamstring injury.
Mido has shed some unwanted weight over the past few weeks and will come back hopefully leaner and hungrier.
But, instead of being an automatic choice as he was before, he will now join a battle for forward places as Southgate looks forward to his healthiest situation up front since the end of last season.
Crosby said: “You can’t have too many strikers to choose from so it’s an ideal situation for us.
“We have competition elsewhere in the team and we need strong competition up front as well.”
Gareth Southgate is determined not to rush the 24-year-old, despite him being unable to reach full fitness as hoped last month.
Boro are putting Mido through a rigorous training schedule at Rockliffe Park and the striker is getting stuck into the task.
Assistant boss Malcolm Crosby told the Evening Gazette today: “Mido is working very hard in training and I have seen a big improvement in him over the last couple of weeks.
“If he continues to work at this rate then it might be another few weeks.
“He is going to be in decent shape at the end of it and hopefully he will be pushing for his place in no more than a month or so.
“We need all our players fit. We need competition for places.”
Boro were dismayed that Mido put on weight as he battled to recover from an abdominal injury.
He has not started a game since October and his absence has left Boro without a recognised centre-forward for four months.
The deadline-day signing of Afonso Alves had gone a long way to solving the problem, though the Brazilian is still short of fitness himself.
Ironically Alves will achieve full fitness around the same time as Mido, while Tuncay will also be back from a hamstring injury.
Mido has shed some unwanted weight over the past few weeks and will come back hopefully leaner and hungrier.
But, instead of being an automatic choice as he was before, he will now join a battle for forward places as Southgate looks forward to his healthiest situation up front since the end of last season.
Crosby said: “You can’t have too many strikers to choose from so it’s an ideal situation for us.
“We have competition elsewhere in the team and we need strong competition up front as well.”
No comments:
Post a Comment