Kim Hellberg offers an update on Middlesbrough's injuries ahead of Cardiff City's visit and discusses David Strelec

Kim Hellberg insists David Strelec still has a massive role to play at Middlesbrough this season, providing he can avoid too many injuries.

The striker will remain out for Saturday’s clash with Cardiff City this weekend, having spent much of the season battling with fitness issues.

Strelec started pre-season well, netting twice in the first two friendlies, before suffering an injury that saw him miss the start of the campaign.

In the meantime, Will Lankshear arrived at the club and has been scoring for fun - taking his tally to ten at Stoke City on Tuesday evening.

It meant Strelec’s return to fitness was a slow-moving one, before he went away on international duty, scored in last of four games for Slovakia, only to pick up another injury which has resulted in him missing Boro’s two wins since the international break.

Offering an update on injuries - with Alfie Jones and Rokas Pukstas both also out - and Strelec in particular, Hellberg said: “It's similar, I think. It comes very quickly, this game, so it's not much to change.

“David picked up the injury in the international team in the last game. It's not a big one. I don't know if he starts training Monday, or if he starts training the Monday after that. It's somewhere in between those days, I would say.”

It will undoubtedly be a frustrating experience for Strelec, who didn’t quite make the impact he would have hoped last season, which was his first on Teesside.

Asked how he was handling everything from the injuries to seeing Lankshear thrive, Hellberg said: “He’s been very good, to be fair. If you look at David, it's more that he hasn't been available to be picked in terms of his injuries.

“He started the summer absolutely brilliantly. But when we started to play games, he injured himself. I think it was the Huddersfield game, and he was out for a long time.

“He was just starting to come back, and that's why I thought the international break would be good for him, because he would go there and play, and I felt that could be like the perfect start.

“Then he picked up that thing again, which takes him back a little bit again. David’s a top, top player, but he needs to get fit, and be fit consistently.

“The quality he has is not in doubt, and hopefully he can get a little bit more consistency in that now because he's a very, very good player and we will need him through the season.”