The Middlesbrough centre-half was not involved at the Riverside yesterday as Rob Edwards’ side completed their pre-season programme with a 2-2 draw with Spanish side Deportivo La Coruna.
Lenihan, who missed the whole of last season through a combination of ankle and Achilles injuries, experienced muscular pain in training last week.
He has not suffered a serious injury setback, but he will not be involved in next weekend’s Championship opener against Swansea City and is set to be sidelined for around three weeks.
“Darragh, unfortunately, felt a bit of muscle pain on Tuesday,” said Edwards. “I think it’s going to be a similar sort of timeframe as Alex’s [Bangura] was – three weeks or so – which is a frustrating one for us, and for Darragh as well because he was doing so well.
“We’ve looked at a lot of stuff there – his loading was good, he felt good going into that day’s training session. He literally just passed the ball and, in that mechanism, just felt some pain.
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“Luckily, it’s not too bad, it’s not a tendon or anything like that, but it is muscular, which is frustrating.”
Riley McGree, Finn Azaz and George Edmundson were also absent yesterday, and while the trio have been gradually stepping up their training programmes after suffering from injury issues of their own, they are unlikely to be available to face Swansea next weekend.
McGree and Azaz have been involved in some of the pre-season programme, so should hopefully not take too much longer to get up to full speed, but Edmundson will be eased back into action after suffering an injury on the very first day of training after the summer break.
“Riles, Finn and George are all probably in similar positions at the moment,” said Edwards. “Next week might be pushing it at the moment.
“They’re all working hard on trying to be available. I’d love it if they were, but at this moment, I can’t promise it.
“It might come too soon and might end up being the second league game for those three. Especially George – he hasn’t had any pre-season. We’ll see on all of them.”
