MICHAEL Carrick revealed that Finn Azaz, Delano Burgzorg and Hayden Hackney all hardly trained before returning to Middlesbrough's starting XI against Hull City - making their displays all the more impressive.
Azaz and Hackney were particularly influential as Boro got back to winning ways with a 3-1 victory over Hull after their midweek Blackburn setback.
Both Azaz and Burgzorg missed the Blackburn game through illness, while Hackney had missed two games with an ankle injury suffered during the international break.
The trio have been absent on the training pitches at Rockliffe for most of this week, but were desperate to return to the side against the Tigers.
Carrick said: "The lads weren’t all necessarily 100 per cent. Finn and Delano couldn’t really do a lot of training as the two who were mainly affected by the illness. H literally trained a little bit yesterday and we weren’t really expecting to have him back.
"We had the week planned out [without him]. It gave us an element of freshness, with Dael's first game back as well. So while we weren’t at totally full tilt in terms of health, it’s extra credit to the lads."
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Azaz set Boro on their way against Hull with a first half opener before Tommy Conway doubled the home side's advantage four minutes before the break. Hull substitute Mason Burstow halved the deficit 19 minutes from time before Conway struck his second and Boro's third to secure the points.
Carrick said: “Today was a tough game, and we expected it to be that way. The type of team they are, the quality they’ve got and the way they play. The change in managers can go in different ways and adds an element of uncertainty as well, so I expected we’d have to really work for it.
"Those type of games can become quite hard because you’re chasing it and they have the quality to keep the ball off you. It can be a tough afternoon. But the boys stuck at it because it wasn’t easy to have an exact plan for and we had to focus more on just what we could do in terms of our shape and distances and the feeling between each other.
"The boys stuck at it and did the good things to get the result. It was a tricky game but one we came through really well. We did a lot of things well - pressed well, scored good goals and probably could and should have scored more. All in all, it was good to bounce back from what will hopefully now prove just a blip in midweek."
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