91Èȱ¬

Middlesbrough manager Tony Mowbray has admitted his squad has been stretched by injuries and knocks after the 1-0 Capital One Cup defeat by Swansea City.

Faris Haroun and Andre Bikey were withdrawn with hamstring injuries during the second half to add further disappointment to the Teessiders.

"It's like a hospital ward in the dressing room," Mowbray told 91Èȱ¬ Tees.

"We have to wait and see. We'll strap everyone up on Friday and send a team out to try to beat Wolves."

Mowbray added: "Everyone's got an ice pack on. [Grant] Leadbitter came off with a tight hamstring, Andy Halliday has an Achilles problem, and there's a few others."

Boro's exit denied them a place in the last four of the competition, 180 minutes away from a first trip to the new Wembley.

But the level of performance, in addition to the scalp of rivals Sunderland en-route to the quarter-finals, was a positive despite defeat at the Liberty.

"Swansea are top-half of the Premier League - what it does is give the players the belief that if we can get out of this division we can go into the Premier League have no fear and take teams on," Mowbray continued.

"The Sunderland performance was similar to tonight, but it's fine margins, you win a game 1-0 or lose a game 1-0.

"They didn't score a goal that cut us open with clinical Premier League quality, it was an own-goal from a corner that misdirected into the net.

"When it comes to clear-cut opportunities we probably had more than they did, but the result is what we'll see in the history books so we have to move on."