AITOR KARANKA hopes this week’s warm weather training will help ensure that leading goalscorer Patrick Bamford will be fit to spearhead Middlesbrough’s play-off tussle.

Bamford is expected to be cleared to face Brentford in the semi-final first leg on Friday at Griffin Park and has flown out to Marbella with the rest of the promotion chasers.

The 21-year-old did not train at all last week and was left out of Saturday’s final game of the Championship season against Brighton at the Riverside Stadium as a precaution.

But Bamford is expected to train for the duration of the training camp at the Marbella Football Centre having seen the ankle problem he sustained at Norwich on April 17 show significant signs of improvement.

The 19-goal striker figured at Fulham a week after his injury, but Karanka was keen to have him in the team for such a crucial game, which is why he opted to leave him out against Brighton in last weekend's dead rubber.

Bamford’s form since arriving on loan from Chelsea in August earned him the Championship’s player of the year at the Football League awards and has increased the interest in him from Premier League clubs.

Southampton and Aston Villa are known to be keen on him, while Boro will be looking to take him back to the Riverside if they can secure a top-flight return.

But Ipswich boss Mick McCarthy, whose side could face Boro in the play-off final at Wembley if they overcome neighbours Norwich City, thinks Bamford should not have won the main gong at the Football League awards.

Former Sunderland boss McCarthy said: “As much as I like Patrick Bamford – I think he is a terrific player – Daryl Murphy has scored more goals and he has scored more in a squad that was pretty unfancied at the start of the season.

“He is the one that has dragged us with his boot laces (into the play-offs) with all the goals he has scored. He has been brilliant.

“Patrick Bamford is a Chelsea player. He is a Premier League footballer on loan. Daryl Murphy is a Championship football player at a Championship club. Congratulations to Patrick, because he is a terrific player, but I think Murph deserved it.”

Brentford have suffered two defeats to Boro this season; the first was a crushing 4-0 defeat at the Riverside in September when Bamford got on the scoresheet and then Grant Leadbitter’s penalty proved decisive when they met at the end of January.

But Brentford were unfortunate not to get something from the fixture at Griffin Park, which is a tight ground sure to have a hostile environment when they meet again this week.

And Mark Warburton, the Brentford boss who will leave at the end of the season regardless of the division they are in, is desperate to see his team exact revenge on the Teessiders after the two defeats.

Warburton, told Get West London, said: “The game here I thought we played well, they get one penalty and that was it. The away game at Middlesbrough was probably one of our worst halves of football this season in terms of intensity, tempo and quality on the ball.

“So we’ve got some unfinished business there and we’re looking forward to it but we will never underestimate what is a really talented opponent.

“They’ve reached the play-offs. The Premier League is three games away. The most lucrative game in world football is two games away. That’s how they’ll be thinking.

“Middlesbrough are a formidable opponent, well-organised, with many talented players and managed by Aitor Karanka. This is a tough place to come though, especially for a night game under the lights in front of a passionate Bees crowd. Hopefully we can deliver a good performance.”

Other than Bamford’s fitness, Boro have no fresh injury concerns. Jonathan Woodgate is edging closer to being available after hamstring trouble and could figure in one of the play-off games.