Boro confirmed their retained list on Friday ahead of Saturday’s deadline for clubs to submit a list of all out of contract players whose services are not being retained.
Dijksteel is the most high profile departure, with the 28-year-old set to leave after six years on Teesside. The right-back has made 167 appearances since joining from Charlton Athletic in 2019.
He looked set to leave last summer but ended up playing his way back into Michael Carrick’s plans and featured prominently this season.
But signing a new right-back is a priority this summer and Dijksteel’s exit comes as no surprise. Millwall and other Championship clubs were interested in Dijksteel in January.
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Howson showed his continued importance to Boro with a hugely impressive spell in the side at the back end of the season,
Howson, who turns 37 next week, only made six starts before mid-March because of injury but started Boro’s last 10 Championship games, coming to Carrick’s rescue at centre-half after a defensive injury crisis.
Boro said in a statement on Friday: “Club captain Jonny Howson appears on the list, but discussions will take place in due course with a player who has made 341 appearances for the club since joining in the summer of 2017.”
Mark Travers, Ryan Giles, Kelechi Iheanacho, Samuel Iling-Junior and Ben Doak will all return to their parent clubs and it’s unlikely as things stand that Boro will pursue permanent deals for any of last season’s loanees.
There was interest in making Travers’ deal permanent but the Bournemouth goalkeeper will almost certainly be too expensive and is expected to have more lucrative offers and options elsewhere.
Boro have also announced the exit of a number of young players, including Pharrell Willis, who was the first academy player to be handed a first team debut by Carrick at the end of 2022.
Terrell Agyemang, George Gitau, Jack Hannah, Afonso Lindo, Dan Nkrumah, Nathan Simpson, Alfie Myers-Smith, Jack Stott and Cain Sykes will all depart the club, as well as scholars Addis Dore, Felix Elliott, Noah Muwana, Fin O’Gorman, Ethan Scott and Judah Tawiah.
Boro said: “We offer our thanks to all those players leaving us this summer for their contributions and wish them the very best of luck in their future careers.”
