Conway out for Boro final but Hackney available

Hayden Hackney and Tommy Conway have scored a combined 19 goals for Middlesbrough this season [Getty Images] Hayden Hackney is ready to play some part in the Championship play-off final after his fitness was confirmed by Middlesbrough head coach Kim Hellberg. Midfielder Hackney has not featured since 14 March because of a groin injury, missing 10 games, of which Boro have only won two. But the 23-year-old, whose availability for the semi-final is believed to have been behind Southampton's spying mission at Boro's Rockliffe Park training ground, will be free to play at Wembley, as Hellberg assesses how to use the Championship player of the season.

"Hayden's ready," Hellberg told BBC Radio Tees before Saturday's final against Hull City. "It's a question mark of how much he's ready and how is best to solve the puzzle in terms of everything that goes around the game and what suits him best, and us best. " However, striker Tommy Conway will not play in the promotion decider after picking up an ankle injury in the second leg of the semi-final against Southampton.

Conway, also 23, left the field at St Mary's in tears with the injury also ruling him out of selection for Scotland's World Cup squad. And Hellberg is disappointed not to be able to call upon a player who has featured in every match since the Swede's arrival in November. "Through the season, Tommy has been very, very important," he said.

"Over the last five or six games, it's been his best spell in terms of how he has run, how dangerous he has been moving into the box, how good he's been from the left. "Of course it's a big blow not having him in the squad, but he will do everything he can to support us. But that's football, injuries can happen and other people have to step forward.