BRITT ASSOMBALONGA thinks the international break has come at a good time for Middlesbrough – and is hoping to use the next week-and-a-half to ensure he and his team-mates are in peak condition for their forthcoming run of home games.

The Teessiders host Hull City and Barnsley in the space of four days later this month, and will be targeting the Riverside double-header to haul themselves out of the Championship relegation zone.

While Darren Randolph, Paddy McNair and George Saville are away on international duty, the majority of Jonathan Woodgate’s first-team players are training at Rockliffe Park.

Woodgate felt the last international break was beneficial as it enabled him to bed in a new defensive system, and Assombalonga is hoping the current hiatus proves equally productive.

“I’m sure this two weeks will be full of hard training sessions to make sure we’re ready for after the break,” said the Boro striker, who scored both of his side’s goals in last weekend’s 2-2 draw at QPR. “There’ll be time off, but when we’re in, we’re in, and we’ll be working hard.”

One of the bonuses of the international break is that it gives Woodgate an opportunity to plan a block of training sessions, and Assombalonga has been impressed with the former skipper’s impact since he stepped up to the role of head coach at the start of the summer.

“He’s always positive,” he said. “The manager is always positive. If we’re bad then we’re bad, and he lets us know. But when we’ve played well, like we did (at QPR), he praises us. He tells us to keep working hard.

“He’s a great guy, a great manager, and everyone respects him. Everyone wants to work hard for him.”

Last weekend’s performance at Loftus Road raised morale, but having won just two of their 16 league matches this season, Assombalonga accepts that results will be the only things that matter when Hull and Barnsley visit the Riverside once the league programme resumes.

“They’ll be important games,” he said. “We just have to do what we did at QPR, work together and keep going.”