TONY Mowbray continues to scour the loan market for a striker, but the Middlesbrough manager admits his side's recent attacking displays have reduced the need for an immediate addition.

With Coventry City refusing to release Lukas Jutkiewicz and Ipswich boss Paul Jewell refusing to countenance a loan move for Jason Scotland, Mowbray has been forced to turn his attention elsewhere.

He remains keen to add an attacker to the ranks, with Marvin Emnes and Scott McDonald currently operating as the only senior strikers on Boro's books.

But with the pair having shared eight goals already this season, the Middlesbrough manager admits he has been able to bide his time rather than rush into the first deal presented to him.

"The form of the strikers has been crucial and it's probably taken a bit of the pressure off in terms of bringing someone in," said Mowbray. "It's also been crucial that the two lads have stayed fit.

"It's still imperative that we add another striker because we will pick up injuries and suspensions along the way, and a degree of fatigue is bound to kick in.

"I don't want to be playing players who are running on empty. It has been important that we've generally kept our attacking players fit, but you can't rely on that.

"There's been a bit of progress. The perception might be that nothing is happening, but actually the wheels are turning pretty fast. There's a lot of conversations going on behind the scenes and we are striving to bring someone in.

"There's a lot of games coming up in a short period of time and if we don't get some help soon, the two strikers who have been playing up front will run an increased risk of breaking down."

The first of those games comes at Crystal Palace tomorrow, with Boro due to return to Selhurst Park for a Carling Cup third-round tie on Tuesday night.

Centre-half Stephen McManus is a doubt for the first of the games having limped off in the early stages of Saturday's 2-0 win at Burnley following a collision with team-mate Rhys Williams.

McManus is due to return to training this morning, but Mowbray admits the Scotsman's participation in tomorrow's game is in the balance.

"Stephen hasn't trained yet," he said. "That's been frustrating for both the player and the rest of the team. The backline has done exceptionally well this year, keeping clean sheets and looking solid so we don't want to make too many changes unless we have to.

"We'll wait and see how things progress. He's hoping to train (today) and if he comes through okay, he'll travel with the team. If he doesn't, then I'm pretty sure he won't be far away from making Tuesday's game."

The same is true of midfielder Kevin Thomson, who played for 70 minutes as Boro's development squad secured a 3-1 win over Blackpool earlier this week.

The Scotsman has been sidelined since undergoing ankle and leg surgery in the summer, and while he is unlikely to feature in this weekend's league game, he could be involved in the squad for the Carling Cup.

"Kevin's not far away," said Mowbray. "He's champing at the bit. He played in a reserves game this week, and there's no better way to build up your fitness than through playing games.

"We'll try to get him involved as soon as we can. He's had a frustrating start to the season, but his quality is unquestionable and the sooner we get him back on the pitch, the better it will be for the team."

Similarly, it will not be too much longer before first-choice goalkeeper Jason Steele is back in action.

The England Under-21 international broke his wrist in pre-season, but stepped up his recovery when he returned to light training this week.

"He's probably a couple of weeks away from full training," said Mowbray, who will promote Steele straight back into the first team despite a series of impressive showings from loanee Carl Ikeme. "He's had his gloves on this week, but he's only been doing very delicate soft handling. It'll be a progression over the next few weeks to diving around and getting back into proper goalkeeping."

It isn't all good news on the injury front, however, as Jonathan Franks will be sidelined for three months after dislocating his shoulder while on loan at Oxford. "He's had an operation and he's going to be out for a while now," confirmed Mowbray.