Southgate expects Riverside return

Middlesbrough captain Gareth Southgate has declared himself fit to play against Fulham in Sunday's Premiership clash at the Riverside.

The 35-year-old central defender has not featured since damaging a groin in the 2-1 defeat at West Ham on October 23 and he was expected to be out for about six weeks.

“I was back in full training yesterday and was in for running last week when most of the lads were away (on international duty), so hopefully I will be considered for Sunday,” he said.

“When the injury happened I didn’t think it would take the four to six weeks they had predicted for recovery, though if I come back on Sunday it will have been four weeks.

“If we’d had a game last weekend I think I would have been pretty close to playing but now I’ve got an extra week to get myself fully fit.”

Southgate admits he should not have played at West Ham, the third match in a run of seven in 21 days.

“I want to play every game that comes along,” he said. “But if in the future I feel like I did going into the West Ham match I won’t play. I shouldn’t have started that game in hindsight.”

Inconsistency has been a feature of the club’s season to date – highlighted by their 13th place in the league – and Southgate knows that has to stop, especially at home where they face struggling West Brom the week after Fulham.

“We need to get ourselves in the top half of the table,” he told the Middlesbrough Evening Gazette.

“Fulham have played very well this season but perhaps haven’t got the results they have deserved.

“We have got to try to beat them and if we are to climb into the top half of the table then these are games we must win.”