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Arriving at Middlesbrough in May of 2017 from CS Fola Esch, Enes Mahmutovic looked like he was on the right track to establishing himself as one of the more promising young defenders in the club’s reserves.

Already capped four times for Luxembourg, the 20-year-old had managed to get an early spot in the U23 first team at Riverside before a thigh muscle strain saw him miss the next five to six weeks.

Briefly back after recuperating, the player then managed to hurt his ankle while on duty with his national team, and what was meant to be a two week recovery has now been confirmed as much worse.

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Luxemburger Wort report on Wednesday the youngster will require surgery on his ankle joint and is now likely to be out until 2018.

Telling the outlet “I’ll come back stronger”, Mahmutovic will be hoping this is the last of injury problems once he’s recovered from this setback considering how excited he was to join Middlesbrough in the first place.