GARRY MONK has paid tribute to Cyrus Christie for the way he has handled being the subject of racist comments over the last ten days, on and off the pitch.

Christie had to deal with racist abuse on social media immediately after the Republic of Ireland’s World Cup qualifier defeat to Denmark and has been invited back to Ireland to give a statement to the police.

Christie went onto social media himself to state how “proud” he was of the Ireland fans but that he had received comments which were “not representative of our fans and sport”.

The right-back, who faces former club Derby this afternoon at the Riverside, was back in the Middlesbrough team that defeated Birmingham on Tuesday night.

And Monk said: "You have to be a strong character and he is. I spoke to him about that stuff and we are 100 per cent behind Cyrus. I have already said it, those things aren’t acceptable in any walk of life. He has our full support and he knows that.

“He is good, mentally he is strong. He was ready to play on Tuesday and I thought it was great the fans showed their support when he went out for his warm up. That’s what it is about. It’s unity. All the players and everyone here is behind him and the fans showed it too. He is a good professional.

“I think he is enjoying it here. They are all enjoying it here. He seems to be. They all know what they want to achieve and it’s about overcoming the problems, it’s about the unity in the squad and seeing everyone get stronger and stronger. The results as we go help that too.”

The 25-year-old moved to Middlesbrough for £2.5m in the summer and there were some eyebrows raised by fans after he hadn’t set the world alight at Derby.

But Christie has looked a bargain so far at the Riverside, Monk said: “You look at what is available and what is not in that position, which was one we felt we needed to strengthen in. I was keen to do Cyrus, the club where keen to back me on that.

“He is a quality performer, more to come from him. I was perhaps a little surprised with the fee (thought it may be more), but everyone is different and situations are different.

"It was affordable for us to do and him coming in he has not surprised me. I still feel there is a lot more to come. He is a good character in the group, his performance levels have been strong even though you can dip. The expectancy is there for him to keep doing that now and he has to.

“Players are settling into their roles, it can take time, but I think the players are understanding their roles now because they have been working with each other on a daily basis. From day one I said it takes time, but if we can get points while everyone has been settling into their roles then great, we have to build from that.”