NEIL WARNOCK will not be rushing Ashley Fletcher back into action in the next couple of weeks, having accepted that he will be unable to sign a new centre-forward in this month’s transfer window.

Fletcher took part in a series of pre-match running drills at the Riverside Stadium on Saturday, before watching Middlesbrough’s 1-0 defeat to Birmingham City from the stands.

He has been sidelined since the second game of the season with a serious hamstring injury, but is set to step up his recovery by joining in with some of Boro’s first-team training sessions this week.

However, with Warnock conceding he will almost certainly not be signing a new striker this month, there is an understandable determination to ensure Fletcher does not suffer a injury recurrence. He will not be considered for Wednesday’s trip to Nottingham Forest or Saturday’s home game with Blackburn, but could be involved in the following weekend’s game with Championship leaders Norwich City.

“It’s a positive seeing Ashley getting back,” said Warnock. “When you’ve got what we’ve got, you need people like Ashley fit. I think he’s probably looking at the Norwich game for being involved.

“I think before that, he needs a couple of weeks training because he hasn’t really joined in with us properly yet. He’s played in a couple of little games as a floater, but it will be nice to see him getting a bit more football in the next two weeks.

“I don’t think we can rush it now when we’ve waited all this time. It’s unlikely we’re going to get another striker, so we really need him and make sure he’s right.”

While Fletcher is making positive progress on the injury front, the news regarding Marcus Browne is much less upbeat.

A series of scans at the end of last week revealed the winger has suffered cruciate ligament damage, and an operation later this month will result in him being sidelined for the remainder of the current campaign.

“It’s bad news on Marcus,” said Warnock. “The consultant thinks that it might be a cruciate when he’s looked at the scans. I think he will be operated on in the next sort of ten days when the swelling has gone down.

“He can’t really give me a time frame because he doesn’t know what’s inside, because he had a problem with his kneecap. The good thing for Marcus is the surgeon is going to mend his kneecap at the same time as he does his cruciate.

“Because he’s a young lad, he’ll heal and he’ll get back. I said to him, ‘You feel bad because you’ve done so well to get back, but there’s a lot worse in life, look at Sol Bamba, my old player’."