Morgan Whittaker appreciation hope for Kim Hellberg as Boro star's absence felt

Boro’s top scorer returned to action in midweek and moved to 12 goals for the season with his match-winning strike against Sheffield Wednesday.

It’s a welcome-timed return for Whittaker, with Boro now having one eye on the play-offs, which look increasingly likely for Boro with just two games remaining in the regular season.

Whittaker hasn’t always enjoyed the best of times on Teesside, and his streaky form has led to questions over his importance and regular selection. But he has 12 goals and six assists this season, highlighting his importance, particularly after a period where Boro struggled in the final third.

The forward's five-game absence (six if you include the Ipswich game in which he only played the final minute from the bench) coincided with a seven-game winless run for Boro which looks likely to have cost them automatic promotion. And Hellberg hopes his absence results in everyone now realising his importance after his goalscoring and match-winning return.

“Sometimes, you don’t appreciate just how good something is when you have it,” Hellberg said. “Then, when you miss it, you realise just how important it is. That’s the same way in life sometimes.

“When you see Morgan in training now, being back, you see the quality he has with finishing, how quickly he can shoot with both his left and right foot. That is a quality we have missed, and I think everyone can see that.

“When we missed him and Hayden [Hackney] at the same time, we missed the two most important players to us in terms of points gained, probably along with Tommy [Conway]. They contributed with so many goals, and it’s tough to lose them both.

“Then, of course, there’s Leo [Castledine] who we brought in in January and who had scored 12 goals with Huddersfield before he arrived. He also scored a lot of goals and was coming into it, but then he missed out too. It was a tough period of time for us.

“The most difficult thing in football is putting the ball into the net, and that’s why those players are valued so highly. It’s very good to have him back. You can see and understand why he scored those goals because of that quality in those moments.

“Then, I think he has improved some of the other things during my time here. If I look at him, he has improved in terms of how hard he works for the team and how hard he works in reactions when we do not have the ball. I think he has grown.

“It was not good for us for him be injured in that period of time, but that is also football and other people have to take their chance. It’s very good to have him back though and he’s a very important player for us.

“He looked sharp and those 60 minutes will help him a lot for the further games. It was very important for him to get on the scoresheet.”

Here at TeessideLive, we are dedicated to bringing you the best Middlesbrough FC coverage and analysis.

Make sure you don't miss out on the latest Boro news by joining our free WhatsApp group. You can get all the breaking news and best analysis sent straight to your phone by clicking here to subscribe.

Your information will be hidden, you'll only ever receive messages from the Teesside Live sports team, and you can leave any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'Exit group'. If you’re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice .