Van den Berg was not involved in this afternoon’s 2-2 friendly draw with Deportivo La Coruna amid ongoing speculation over his future.
Both Feyenoord and FC Koln have held talks over van den Berg’s position, but neither has had a bid accepted for the 21-year-old.
As a result, van den Berg remains a Boro player and while he was not deemed fit enough to feature today after suffering a back spasm in the warm-up ahead of last weekend’s friendly draw at Rangers, Edwards fully expects him to be back in training next week ahead of the Championship season-opener against Swansea City.
“Rav trained in part of the session yesterday, but not in the full session,” said Edwards. “He wouldn’t have been involved in it, and that’s where it’s at with him. I’m expecting him to train on Monday.”
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While van den Berg was not involved at the Riverside, Hayden Hackney appeared as a second-half substitute, having rejected a move to Ipswich Town.
Hackney travelled to Suffolk and spoke to Ipswich officials after Boro accepted a bid of around £20m, but has decided to reject the opportunity to move to Portman Road.
“Of course I’m pleased,” said Edwards, when asked about Hackney’s decision to reject Ipswich’s offer, which is understood to have involved personal terms worth around £35,000-a-week. “He’s our player and we’re delighted to have him here.
“He’s a top player to work with, his attitude is always fantastic. I’m really delighted to have got him back on the pitch, and I thought he showed some really good control in certain moments as well.
“I don’t want to go into too much detail on it at the moment, I’m just really pleased he’s here and he’s with us.”
Boro signed off their pre-season programme with a 2-2 draw with Deportivo, who will spend next season playing in the Spanish second tier.
The Teessiders opened the scoring through Tommy Conway’s fourth-minute strike, and while Yeremay Hernandez and Lucas Noubi scored for Deportivo, Conway levelled things with his second goal of the game after excellent approach play from Sammy Silvera.
“It was a decent game and a decent performance as well,” said Edwards. “Speaking to the staff, you’re tyring to debrief it and go through it, you’ve got a lot of emotions and they were probably more positive about it than I was. They’re a little bit more removed from it than I am, so that’s good to hear.
“Overall, I thought we scored a fantastic first goal from a high regain and high press, and started the game really well. We created a tap-in for TC [Conway], and those are things we want. I was really pleased with that.
“We could have been better with the first goal we conceded, but he still stuck it in the top corner. We’ve not really conceded big chances, although we did concede from a set-piece and we need to get that first contact.
“The response was good after going 2-1 down. Sammy did great for the second goal, and TC was there between the posts which is where you want your number nine.”
