Middlesbrough have to beat Norwich City in a 3pm kick-off on Saturday to keep their Championship play-off hopes alive.
Just prior to the 2024–2025 season, Middlesbrough was projected to finish second in the Championship.
Boro, who enter the last round of games in seventh place in the division, have significantly fallen short of their expectations.
Even though Middlesbrough led 1-0 against Sheffield Wednesday, who had been playing poorly at home until this week, they lost on Easter Monday.
To ensure they stay in the running for sixth place on the last day of the season, the North East team must defeat Norwich City.
| Position | Team | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | For | Against | Diff | Points |
| 5 |  |
44 | 17 | 16 | 11 | 57 | 49 | 8 | 67 |
| 6 |  |
44 | 19 | 9 | 16 | 62 | 57 | 5 | 66 |
| 7 |  Middlesbrough |
44 | 18 | 9 | 17 | 64 | 54 | 10 | 63 |
| 8 |  Millwall |
44 | 17 | 12 | 15 | 45 | 46 | -1 | 63 |
| 9 |  Blackburn |
44 | 18 | 8 | 18 | 50 | 46 | 4 | 62 |
Michael Carrick must therefore make the right team choice on the day.
Dael Fry returns as Jonny Howson dropped vs Norwich City
There may be an unexpected alteration to the team when Boro kicks off at 3 p.m.
The Boro manager cannot make many changes against Norwich due to a lack of quality depth brought on by injuries and bad transfer market choices.
However, Dael Fry’s return to the starting lineup would be very logical.
Jonny Howson has occasionally excelled for Middlesbrough as a center defender despite issues with players like Rav van den Berg and Fry.
The midfielder wasn’t playing well earlier this week, though, and his possible replacement has, predictably, emerged as a far more capable defender when healthy and available.
We might see Delano Burgzorgo return to the starting lineup after being benched against the Owls, in addition to Howson being dropped for Fry.
Middlesbrough injury update before Norwich City
As previously stated, Boro has experienced numerous injury issues during the 2024–2025 campaign.
It is anticipated that Riley McGree, Sol Brynn, and Alex Bangura will not play for the North East team again.
However, Carrick did offer encouraging news on Brynn and the forgotten left-back during his pregame press conference this week.
“It’s unlikely for Alex and Sol—they’ll be a little bit further,” he stated. Alex recently joined the lads for the first time this week, which is fantastic news. Even though he’s still incredibly light and difficult to manage at this point, it was great to have him back in the group.
Like Darragh, he has had a long voyage. Although Sol has been back on the grass for a short while, neither of them will be able to return in the upcoming week or two.
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