MARTIN BRAITHWAITE has stepped up his training this week, but will not be available for Middlesbrough’s trip to Fulham at the weekend.

Braithwaite has been sidelined since damaging his hamstring in the opening week of the season, and has not been involved since the opening-day defeat to Wolves.

He has trained with the first-team squad this week, but with Boro boss Garry Monk reluctant to do anything that might jeopardise his chances of a long-term recovery, will not be part of the squad at Craven Cottage.

Boro will also be without striker Rudy Gestede, who is continuing to recover from leg surgery following a training-ground collision.

Monk said: “It’s the same group as we’ve been having. Martin Braithwaite is back in training, it’s just about building him up now and getting some fitness into him from the football perspective. The weekend game will probably be too soon, but we’re looking into next week (to get him back).

“Rudy is a difficult one to assess because it’s a case of how the wound heals. He’s doing well though, and we’re hoping its sooner rather than later.”

Boro head to Fulham on Saturday looking to extend their unbeaten run to six games in the wake of Tuesday’s Carabao Cup third-round win over Aston Villa.

The fourth round draw has handed the Teessiders a trip to Bournemouth, and while Monk is reluctant to look too far into the future, he is not fazed by the prospect of having to travel to the opposite end of the country.

He said: “It’s just down the road! It’s another away trip, but we’ll deal with that when it comes. It’ll make it three away games in a week, so it’ll be a difficult period for us, but we’ll have time to prepare.

“We want to go into each game and try to win it, and the cup game on Tuesday was important to us. We won it with a good display.”