THIS time last year Matt Clarke was something of a forgotten man at Middlesbrough.

No by those inside the club, of course, but from the outside looking in the focus was very much on those playing and contributing to Boro's promotion charge and the dramatic improvement after Michael Carrick's appointment.

How frustrating and testing those months must have been for Clarke.

Having arrived in the summer of 2022, Clarke made a bright start on Teesside but after just six games was struck with a mystery back problem that would sideline the defender for more than a year.

In that time, Boro were a team transformed. The manager who'd signed Clarke had gone and the system he'd been signed to fit in to had been changed.

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Conservative treatment on Clarke's injury didn't work and the 27-year-old ended up going under the knife.

His future was uncertain. Would the surgery work? Would he get back to the level he was at previously? And if and when he did get back fit, would he be able to force his way into the Boro team? That was no easy task when you consider Dael Fry, Darragh Lenihan, Rav van den Berg and Paddy McNair have all impressed at various stages under Carrick.

Which makes what has happened in the last four months all the more impressive.

Since making his return from the bench for the final eight minutes of the home win over Preston in November, Clarke has featured in 15 of Boro's 20 Championship games.

He's played every minute of seven of Boro's last eight games, notched assists in the crucial wins over Norwich and QPR and was key in helping Carrick's side keep three successive clean sheets ahead of the current international stoppage.

Clarke's form shouldn't really come as a surprise. He's played more than 300 league games in his career, won Player of the Year awards in three successive seasons at Portsmouth and Derby and, in recent weeks since Carrick's formation switch, has been used in the role he was signed to play.

But such long lay-offs can take a long time to get over - some players never get over them at all.

With Lenihan, Fry and Tommy Smith having all faced long spells on the sidelines themselves this season, leaving Carrick short at the back, Clarke's return and ability to play so much football has been of huge importance.

"Clarkey has done tremendously well since coming back," says Carrick.

"It's easy to forget because we kind of move on so quickly in football his back story and everything he's gone through over the last 18 months. Since he's come back he's literally not missed a day's training, which is not easy after being out for a long time.

"Sometimes you can pick up little niggles as the body adjusts to training and playing games all the time again. But he's been pretty robust and you can see that with his consistency in playing and training. His performances are there as well."