Middlesbrough look set to travel to Brentford on Saturday despite the club announcing that they had suffered a COVID-19 outbreak earlier in the week.

Boro will play Brentford in what will be one of five all-Championship affairs in this weekend's FA Cup programme, and the first time these two sides have met in the competition since 1964 when Brentford progressed with a 2-1 win.

Match preview

A solid cup run has eluded Brentford in recent years, with the Bees having only progressed beyond the fourth round three times since their appearance in the 1988-89 quarter-final, where Liverpool soundly beat them 4-0.

Last season Brentford were able to go as far as the fifth round, where they were eventually undone at home by a strong Leicester City outfit who would go on to reach the quarter-finals.

In this season's competition, Brentford will hope to secure their passage to the fourth round on Saturday and avoid going out of both domestic cups in the space of five days, after they lost out to Tottenham Hotspur on Tuesday night.

History suggests the home side have had relative success against Boro having won three of their four FA Cup meetings with the Smoggies.

However, this season's league match-up ended in a 0-0 draw with neither side able to breach the opposition's backline.

Warnock - who suffered from COVID-19 earlier in the season - will be left to sweat on first-team availability after several senior players tested positive earlier this week, it is understood.

The Boro training ground has since been closed, but the extent of the impact remains to be seen, or whether Boro will have to call upon any of the Under-23s to put forward a squad of 14, as stipulated by the FA.

For Boro fans, memories of not being able to field an XI due to the squad being struck down by a virus will not be fondly remembered.

In 1997, Boro were deducted three points after they could not field a team away to Blackburn Rovers, which would eventually condemn them to relegation from the Premier League as they finished two points adrift of safety.

In an odd twist of fate, Boro reached the final of the FA Cup in that same season, a final that many will remember for Roberto Di Matteo's spectacular opener, after just 42 seconds.

Since 1997, Boro have reached three semi-finals and made one quarter-final appearance, but have failed to progress beyond the fourth round in the last three seasons.

Brentford FA Cup form: WDWLWL
Brentford form (all competitions): DWWWWL

Middlesbrough FA Cup form: LWDLDL
Middlesbrough form (all competitions): LWWWLW

Team News

With local papers saying that Boro's squad has been "decimated' with positive COVID-19 tests, it looks likely that they will be without many first-team players for the tie.

After signing a two-and-a half-year deal on Thursday, Duncan Watmore would have hoped for a celebratory cup win, but it remains to be seen whether he is one of those to test positive.

Brentford will be without Josh DaSilva after he was shown a straight red card on Tuesday night against Spurs.

Aside from suspensions, manager Thomas Frank could name a similar lineup to the one fielded in the week, with Marcus Forss deputising for the absent DaSilva.

Brentford possible starting lineup:
Raya; Dalsgaard, Jansson, Pinnock, Henry; Dasilva, Janelt, Jensen; Mbuemo, Toney, Canos

Middlesbrough possible starting lineup:
Bettinelli; Dijksteel, Fry, McNair, Bola; Wing, Saville, Morsy, Johnson, Watmore; Assombalonga

We say: Brentford 2-0 Middlesbrough

If the Boro squad outbreak is as bad as we are led to believe, it might be hard for them to put up much of a fight come Saturday. We expect a full-strength Brentford side to come out on top should Boro be missing key players. If Boro can, however, put out a competitive side, we expect it to be a much closer contest.

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