But the Teessider appears unlikely to be available for Tuesday night’s game against QPR, meaning Boro will be without all of their central defenders for the crucial Championship game.
If that is the case, Carrick could be forced to start with Jonny Howson and Neto Borges at centre-half, which is how Boro finished in their defeat to Swansea at the weekend.
Carrick is hoping Rav van den Berg and George Edmundson will be available to return after the international break but the duo will miss the games against QPR and Luton this week. Luke Ayling is also sidelined.
And Carrick also confirmed on Monday that Josh Dede, the right-back who joined from Celtic in January, is also now out of action having fractured his toe playing for the Under-21s against Liverpool at the start of this month.
Further forward, Riley McGree remains absent. Carrick is hoping the midfielder is another player who’ll be in contention after the international break.
Australia play two World Cup qualifiers during the international break but Carrick said it would be “impossible” for McGree to go away with the Socceroos given he hasn’t played since New Year’s Day and hasn’t yet resumed full training with the first team.
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Running through the injuries, Carrick said: “We don’t have an update on Dael yet. We’re still looking at him and assessing where he’s at. We don’t know how long he’s going to be out, so we’ll have to see. We’ll assess that.
“Rav will hopefully be towards the end of the international break, not long after that. We’re hoping George is similar.
“Young Josh is injured now as well. He injured his toe against Liverpool and looks like he might have fractured that.
“So yeah, there is quite a few we’re dealing with right now. It’s not just us. It’s the under-21s as well.
“Harley (Hunt) had the problem with his hamstring, James (Wilson) has missed almost all the season with his knee. It’s making it all the more difficult as we go on.”
Howson looks set to make his first start since December on Tuesday night and Carrick is hoping to get through this week’s games then assess the injury situation again during the international stoppage.
“We have two games this week and then we have a bit of a break,” he said.
“We’ve just got to make the most of what we’ve got. Jonny came back the other day ahead of schedule.
“We pushed him way ahead really. That’s a positive because we know what he brings and his experience. But he hasn’t done an awful lot of training, so we’ll see how that goes. But, at the end of the day, we’ve got a good squad of players and we’ll find a way.
“It’s been an incredible run, there’s no getting away from it. Injuries, really, that are impact injuries: players falling on top, twisted, instant impact etc. It’s very hard to explain sometimes.
“This is pretty extreme at the moment, there’s no getting away from it. It’s the fact most of them are in the same position, and it’s an important position.
“It is what it is though. That’s what we’ve been given, those are the cards we’ve been dealt. There is no point feeling sorry for ourselves. We’ve got to get on with it, and that’s what we’ll do.”
