Sheffield Wednesday go into the final round of Championship matches knowing that a win will guarantee their status in the division but anything less will leave them relying on results from elsewhere to go their way.
Dave Jones will be hoping that left-back Reda Johnson and winger Jermaine Johnson will be passed fit for the match. Both players have missed out recently due to injuries, Reda is thought to be closer to full fitness while Jermaine continues to struggle with a hamstring problem. Both players face fitness tests before Saturday's game.
Jeremy Helan picked up a knock in last Saturday's defeat at Peterborough but the wide midfielder is expected to be available as is experienced midfielder David Prutton.
Wednesday opted to play Steve Howard in a lone striker role last weekend with support from out wide coming from Helan and Chris Maguire. The Owls created very few goalscoring opportunities from the approach and with the emphasis now firmly on them to go out and get a positive result a more attacking line up could be selected. With this in mind Leroy Lita will be hoping for a recall to the starting 11 as will Gary Madine. Pushing Maguire into a more central attacking position is also an option.
Tony Mowbray is expected to field a youthful team at Hillsborough as he assesses his squad in anticipation of the new season. Loan players Sammy Ameobi, Josh McEachran and Ishmael Miller have all returned to their parent clubs, Kieron Dyer will not feature and experienced defender Jonathan Woodgate is also struggling with an injury.
Striker Lukas Jutkiewicz is not expected to be fit and the same can be said of Nicky Bailey and George Friend.
Both teams come into the game with little form to provide them with confidence. Wednesday have been unable to secure their Championship status so far due to a run of four matches without a win and Middlesbrough have only managed 1 win in their last 10 games.
Boro managed a 3-1 win against Wednesday back in November but their form has dipped dramatically since the turn of the year. They have won 11 times in 47 away games against the Owls, losing 31 of these. Middlesbrough won 3-1 on their last visit to Hillsborough in 2009 but lost on each of their previous 3 visits.