Mustapha Carayol must take it a day at a time, says Boro boss Aitor Karanka

Aitor Karanka knows how hard it is to recover from a cruciate knee ligament injury, having suffered the same at Athletic Bilbao in 2005

Aitor Karanka is refusing to put a time frame on Mustapha Carayol’s first team return.

The Boro boss knows from bitter experience just how hard it is to recover from a cruciate knee ligament injury.

And that’s one of the reasons why he doesn’t want to put a figure to how long Carayol will be out of contention.

The Boro winger tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in the Championship fixture at Bournenmouth two weeks ago and is set to go under the knife any day now to have the damage repaired.

He is likely to be out of action for approximately six months, which would mean he won’t play competitively for Boro until September at the earliest.

Asked how long he thought Carayol would be unavailable, Karanka said: “It’s difficult. Maybe you can say six months and it ends up being seven or eight.

“Or you can say eight and it’s only six so with this kind of injury you have to be careful not to commit to a date.

“It’s a long injury and we have games until the end of the season and it’s not good to speculate whether it’s six, seven or eight months.

“I suffered this injury when I was in Athletic Bilbao in 2005,” he added. “And with this kind of injury it’s better to think day-by-day because it’s so far away.

“It’s not important to think about one week or two weeks with this kind of injury.

“Muzzy’s injury is similar to mine but each player is different, the mentality is different, the conditions are different.

“I’m sure Muzzy will come back stronger, more mature and a better player for sure.

“I can understand what he’s going through and that’s why I sent him to be with his family because the early days can be difficult.

“It’s important to be surrounded by your family and friends.”

It’s been a topsy-turvy few weeks for Carayol, who was in fine form at the start of the year, scoring both goals in a 2-0 win at Blackpool.

However, after a disagreement with Karanka at Watford in February, he was dropped for two games because of a “bad attitude”.

On his return he played well, inspiring Boro to victory against Ipswich and scoring against Nottingham Forest before suffering his injury at Bournemouth.