MIDDLESBROUGH manager Steve McClaren has backed defender Ugo Ehiogu to make a full recovery from the horrific internal injuries he suffered at Blackburn on New Year's Day.

The centre-back, who returned to light training yesterday, was hospitalised after puncturing a lung and breaking two ribs in a collision with Rovers goalkeeper Brad Friedel.

Ehiogu, a then-record Boro buy at £8m when Bryan Robson signed him from Aston Villa in October 2000, is unlikely to play for a further three weeks.

But McClaren believes painful past experience of serious injury has fortified the 30-year-old England international in his fight for fitness.

Four years ago, while still with Villa, Ehiogu sustained a fractured eye socket after an accidental clash with Newcastle skipper Alan Shearer at St. James' Park.

Ehiogu's scalp had to be peeled back so surgeons could repair the damage, which kept him out of action for nearly three months.

"He's had another very serious injury.'' said McClaren. "He's been doing nothing. He's had a holiday and just let the ribs and the lung heal.

"He will have lost a lot of fitness and we'll take it a day at a time with him. We won't rush him back; we'll make sure he's right first.

"Ugo has been through it before and came back from that, and he'll do the same again. There'll be no problem.''

Ehiogu rejoined his teammates at Boro's Rockliffe Park training base at Hurworth yesterday, but for the time being is restricted to non-contact work.

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